Why Don't You Stay?
by briewinchester88
Summary: Danny and Steve have been engaged in a friends-with-benefits thing while Steve was still dating Catherine. Steve can't choose between Danny and Catherine and it's taking it's toll on Danny. When something happens to Danny on a case, will Steve be able to save him in time and fix their relationship? / Inspired by the song Stay by Sugarland Angst Rated M for mature content
1. Chapter 1

Danny sat, propped up by pillows, on his sofa bed. He looked to his right and saw Steve sleeping soundly. A small smile formed on Danny's face before it was gone in an instant. He looked at the clock on the wall and prayed that the call wouldn't come.

He and Steve had been doing this _thing_ or friends-with-benefits thing for a while now. But here's the thing, Steve was also seeing Catherine. At first, Danny was cool with it. It started out as a way to let off steam after a particularly stressful case, and then it moved to after every case. And it was great. Until the day Danny made the stupid mistake of falling in love with his crazy ass SEAL of a partner.

Danny was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of Steve's phone ringing. His heart broke a little more when Steve answered it and he knew that it was _her._ Danny watched as Steve got up and started to get dressed.

"Do you really have to go? You could stay a little longer." he asked.

Steve paused, his shirt in his hands, and looked over at Danny. "I wish I could, but Cath and I have dinner plans. Maybe next time." he put his shirt on and then his shoes.

Danny gave a weak smile and looked down at his hands folded in his lap. "Yeah, next time." he could feel the tears starting to well up in his eyes. He blinked his eyes rapidly to get rid of them.

Danny waited until he heard the door close before he looked up. He looked at the empty room and sighed heavily. He wiped his hands over his face and then carded them through his hair.

'How did I let myself get here?' he thought to himself. He thumped his head back against the mound of pillows behind him. He still had his hands fisted in his hair as he finally let the tears fall.

Danny wiped his face after a few minutes and came up with a plan.

"I have to make Steve see that I'm the better choice. I just have to find the right time to tell him." he told himself. He spent most of the night thinking through his plan before he finally fell asleep.

The next day, Danny walked into HQ, tired and moody, and in need of coffee. With coffee in hand, Danny went to his office to try to catch up on the paperwork he'd been putting off. After a while, he heard footsteps and voices enter HQ and Danny knew it was the rest of the team.

He was barely half-way through his paperwork when Steve popped his head into Danny's office.

"Yo Danno. We got a case." Steve left and rejoined the rest of the team.

Danny put down his pen and wiped his eyes and joined the rest of the team.

"What have we got?" he inquired once he joined the team around the computer table.

Chin put up a picture of a male suspended from the ceiling. "Murder. A couple of kids were messing around at an abandoned warehouse and found this."

Danny winced when he saw their vic. He wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy. "Do we have an ID?"

Kono pushed a few buttons and brought up a driver's license. "His name is Shawn Mackelroy. He's lived in Hawaii for a couple of years. His company transferred him here to run the Hawaiian branch. He's 37 and works as an investment banker. I did some digging and it seems that Mr. Mackelroy has been skimming funds from his clients for years."

Danny gave a low whistle and ran a hand over his face. "Has anyone been to the crime scene yet?"

Chin shook his head. "Just HPD and the crime unit. Max is on his way now."

Steve nodded and started to head toward the door. "Good work guys. Let's head over and see what we can dig up."

They split up to their cars and drove to the abandoned warehouse. They arrived as the crime scene unit was just finishing up.

Chin and Kono headed over to talk with the kids while Steve and Danny headed into the warehouse. They walked over to Max, who was examining the body.

"Hey Max. What can you tell us?" Steve asked

Max looked up at Steve. "It seems that the victim suffered copious amounts of abuse and blood loss."

"Any idea on the cause of death?" Danny inquired.

Max looked over at Danny. "My initial thought would be blood loss, but I will know more when I get back to my lab."

"Alright, thanks Max." Steve turned around and headed back out, Danny following close behind.

"What kind of sicko does that to a person? That's just—-that was awful. I have never seen something like this in all my years as a cop." Danny said as he and Steve headed out.

"I don't know, but we're gonna find this guy. And when we do, he'll be going away for a long time." Steve replied.

They met up with Chin and Kono. "Did you get anything from the kids?" Steve asked.

Kono shook her head. "Not much. They arrived here and said that it was empty."

Steve sighed. "Alright. Let's get back to HQ and see if we can find out why our vic was targeted."

The team went back to their respective cars and headed back. Danny was unusually quiet on the way back and that worried Steve. A quiet Danno was never good.

Steve quickly glanced at Danny. "Hey, you alright partner?"

Danny was pulled out of his thoughts by Steve's question. "Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm good. I was just thinking."

Steve looked back at Danny, not watching the road as usual, and noticed that something about his partner was off. He'd never known Danny to stay this quiet. It was unnerving and Steve didn't like it.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

Danny shook his head. "Not at this present moment."

Now Steve knew something was up with Danny. Danny always talked about whatever was on his mind. "Are you sure? You know you can tell me anything, right?"

Danny looked over at Steve and felt a pang in his chest at the concern in the other man's eyes. How many times has Catherine seen that look? How much of Steve does Catherine know about? He looked away from Steve and looked back out the window. "I'm sure and I know. I'm just trying to work through some stuff that's all."

Steve felt hurt that his partner wouldn't look at him. Steve turned his attention back to the road but he couldn't stop worrying about his partner. 'Maybe I'll go to Danny's later and talk to him then.' he told himself.

The ride back to HQ continued in silence as both men were lost in their thoughts. Steve parked the Camaro in its normal spot; Danny was out of the car before Steve had the chance to turn off the engine.

Steve shut off the car and watched as Danny fled into the building. He got out of the car and was joined by Chin and Kono.

"What's up with him?" Kono asked.

Steve shook his head. "I don't have the slightest clue."


	2. Chapter 2

Craig watched as his hide out was completely surrounded by the police. He snarled as he drove away to look for another warehouse.

He couldn't believe that the police found it so quickly. He needed to find a new place soon; he's about to strike again.

Danny sat his desk, staring at his paperwork, and his mind was racing. He can't keep doing this to himself. It's too painful. He needed to tell Steve how he feels or else he's gonna go crazy.

He heard the rest of the team enter and he quickly picked up his pen and continued working. Steve paused outside of Danny's office door. He really wanted to know what was going on with his partner, but now was not the time.

He went to his own office and sat in his chair. He let his mind wander and he kept thinking about Danny. He knew that he loved Danny and that he wanted to be with Danny„ but he couldn't bring himself to follow through. What he has with Catherine, it's easy and there's no attachment.

He knew that he was using the both of them and that he should choose one; he just can't risk losing the friendship he has with them. 'Why are relationships so damn complicated!' he thought to himself.

He didn't realize how long he'd been lost in his thoughts when Danny knocked on his door letting him know that he was leaving for the day.

"Hey D! Do you mind if I come over later?" he asked.

Danny knew it was a bad idea, but he just couldn't help himself. "Yeah ok. That sounds good."

Steve smiled at him and waved him off. He sat back in his chair, smile still in place. He worked on some things that the Governor needed before he called it a night and headed over to Danny's.

When Danny arrived at his apartment„ he was a nervous wreck. He knew he needed to talk with Steve, but it was too soon. He's not ready. What if he said something wrong or what if Steve rejected him?

At the thought of Steve's rejection, Danny felt his stomach churn and the nausea settled in. The more he thought about it, the more nervous and sick he got. He was on the verge of a panic attack.

He felt the bile rising in his throat and he ran to the bathroom, emptying the contents of his stomach. He continued to dry heave when he heard the door open and Steve's voice call out to him.

Steve pulled up outside Danny's apartment and used the spare key that Danny gave him.

"Danny?" he called when he entered the apartment. Steve heard the sounds of retching coming from the bathroom. Steve was instantly at the door and saw Danny leaning over the toilet.

Steve knelt by his partner and started rubbing his back in soothing circles. He wet a washcloth in cold water and wiped the sweat from the blond's face.

Danny flushed the toilet and fell into the welcoming embrace from his partner. He curled into Steve's chest as much as he could; not knowing if he'll have this again once Steve knew the truth.

Steve held tightly to his shaking partner. He was really worried now. Danny has never acted like this and as much as Steve hated to admit it, but he's scared. He tried to comfort his partner as much as he could. He started to card his fingers though Danny's soft hair.

Steve rested his head on top of Danny's. "Danno, please talk to me. You're starting to scare me."

Once Danny calmed down, he pulled back from Steve a little. "Let's go to the living room."

They both stood and walked to the living room. Danny looked at the sofa bed and sighed. He sat down on the side of the bed and motioned for Steve to follow.

When Steve was settled, Danny was trying to gather his thoughts. The silence between them was deafening and Danny knew he was making Steve even more worried that he already was. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I guess there's no easy way to say this so I'm just gonna say it. This _thing _we have between us, it's not working for me anymore." he held up his hand to stop Steve from speaking. "Just let me finish. I can't do the no-strings-attached booty calls anymore because I—I'm in love with you."

Steve was shell-shocked. He didn't think that Danny felt the same. He couldn't quite process this new information and he opened his mouth to speak when his phone started to ring.

Danny groaned when Steve's phone rang. He knew it was Catherine. She seemed to always know when they were together. "Every damn time." Danny muttered to himself.

Steve hit the ignore button on his phone and put it back in his pocket. He'll call Catherine back later. Right now, he has more important things to attend to.

Steve turned to face Danny. What he saw made his chest hurt. Danny sat there, staring down at his hands„ a hurt look on his face. Steve knew what he had to do. He doesn't want to see Danny like this again.

He reached out and placed his hand on Danny's shoulder. "Danno, I feel the same way. I just didn't know you felt it too."

Danny took comfort in Steve's touch, but he just couldn't take comfort in Steve's words. He wanted to believe Steve, he really did, and it's just that Danny can't compete with Catherine.

Danny sighed. "Steve, I want to believe you. I really do, but I don't know if I can. I'm tired of doing this and I'm tired of sharing you with _her. _It's just too painful."

Steve looked away from Danny, but kept his hand where it rested on Danny's shoulder. He didn't realize how much this would hurt Danny. He could only hope that Cath doesn't know about him and Danny. He really doesn't want to hurt her and potentially lose her friendship.

Steve heard the unsaid ultimatum in Danny's words and he knew he was going to have to choose. 'Come on Steve. It shouldn't be this hard!' he thought to himself.

Steve turned Danny's head to face him. He leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on Danny's lips. He pulled back and looked Danny square in the eye.

"I will always choose you." he lied.

Danny smiled at Steve and pulled him back in for a proper kiss. Danny was elated. He finally had someone who he's happy with and that doesn't make him miserable like Rachel did.

Steve returned the kiss, feeling guilty as hell for lying to his best friend. He pushed Danny back to lie on the bed and continued kissing him.

Danny pulled away for a moment. "Can you stay?" he asked.

Steve looked into Danny's eyes and saw hesitation and fear in them. He cupped Danny's face and stroked his cheeks. "Of course I'll stay."

Danny felt relieved at Steve's words and was finally able to relax. He smiled at Steve and leaned into Steve's touch. He finally was content and felt like nothing could mess this up.


	3. Chapter 3

Craig finally found a warehouse and he set up all his tools. He made the preparations needed to accommodate his newest victim. Once he was completely satisfied, he left to go acquire his next victim. He pulled into the small diner where his target worked. He waited patiently for his mark to finish her shift.

He pulled out his book of crosswords. His last therapist told him it would help with his anxiety. He looked at the clock and put away his crosswords. He checked to make sure he had the syringe loaded with a sedative. He exited the car and waited.

Carrie Monroe finished her shift and clocked out. She headed for her car, pulling her keys from her purse. As she was walking, she got a weird vibe that she was being followed.

She started to walk faster, but it wasn't fast enough. Craig caught up with her and grabbed her by the hair. He pulled her flush against him and covered her mouth so she couldn't scream and injected the sedative into her neck. She was out in seconds and Craig threw her over his shoulder. He took her back to his car and put her in the trunk. He taped her mouth, hands and ankles just in case the sedative wore off before he got back to his warehouse.

He closed the trunk and sat in the driver's seat and drove back to the warehouse. He parked close to the door and opened the trunk and smiled. He pulled a still unconscious Carrie from the trunk and carried her into the warehouse.

He cut the tape from her wrists and ankles and chained her to the ceiling. He stood there and just stared at her. She was so beautiful. He stroked his fingers over her cheek and then tucked her hair behind her ear.

Carrie began to stir and when she opened her eyes, everything was blurry and her head hurt. She gave a low moan and tried to move but her arms wouldn't co-operate. She immediately started to panic and pull at her bonds. The metal bit into her wrists and they started to bleed.

Craig watched her struggle from the shadows before he stepped into the single light shining down on Carrie. As soon as Carrie saw the man emerge from the shadows, she screamed behind the tape and tried to move away.

Craig reached out to her and grabbed her hair and pulled her to him. He smirked when he saw the fear and panic occupying her pretty green eyes. He was in one of his moods and he didn't fight it when his psychotic personality surfaced.

He smiled at Carrie menacingly and reached over to the table and grabbed his favorite knife. He dragged the cold tip of the knife gently across her cheeks. He brought the knife down across her throat and proceeded to cut the fabric of her shirt away from her body.

Tears started to stream down Carrie's face as Craig drug the knife over her body. Her chest started to heave as the knife ripped through the fabric of her work shirt. She was extremely petrified. She had no idea what this nut job planned on doing to her.

She began to sob and the movement caused the knife to nick the soft skin of her stomach. She screamed again and tried to move away, but the grip this psycho had on her hair was too tight. She tried begging for her life, but it all came out garbled due to the tape.

Craig watched, fascinated, as the trickle of blood made its way down Carrie's perfectly tanned stomach. He reached out and scooped up the blood on his index finger. He stared at it for a few minutes, pupils blown wide, and brought his finger up to his mouth and licked the blood off.

He closed his eyes as the taste of copper exploded over his taste buds. That familiar taste spurred on his psychotic side and he needed more. He brought the knife back up to that perfectly tanned skin and made more cuts.

Fascinated, he followed the rivulets of blood as they cascaded down Carrie's defined stomach and drip to the floor. He placed the knife back down on the table and knelt in front of Carrie and began to lap at the droplets.

The sobs continued to rack Carrie's body and the tears continued to fall down her face. She was so scared that this man was going to kill her. 'I hope that he kills me quickly' she thought to herself.


	4. Chapter 4

Ok, here be the angsty chapter! Enjoy.

* * *

The next morning, Danny found himself alone in his bed. He sat up quickly and listened for any sounds that would lead him to Steve. Nothing. The water wasn't running, no cooking sounds coming from the kitchen, no nothing. He threw the covers off and got out of bed.

He scrambled over to the window and threw back the curtain. Steve's truck was gone. Danny was livid. He stepped away from the window and punched a hole in the wall.

"Fuck!" he screamed. He threaded his fingers through his hair and began pacing the small space of his living room/bedroom.

Danny sat down on the end of the pull-out and placed his head in his hands. His frantic thoughts were rudely interrupted by his phone ringing. He grabbed it off the table and almost threw it against the wall when he saw Steve's picture on the screen.

He answered the phone. "What?" he was not in the mood to hear any of Steve's excuses.

Steve rubbed his forehead. He should've known that Danny would be in a mood. He never should have left Danny's apartment in the middle of the night to go to Catherine's. God, he's never going to hear the end of this.

"Get to HQ. There's been a kidnapping." he said.

Danny tried really hard to reign in his anger and telling Steve off, but he can wait. Right now, he had a job to do. "I'll be there in ten." he hung up, not giving Steve the chance to say anything else.

Danny resisted the urge to throw his phone again. He tossed it on the bed and headed to the bathroom to shower. He was dressed and out the door in record time and made it to HQ with a few minutes left to spare.

He entered HQ and headed straight for his office, not wanting to see Steve at this present moment. If he saw Steve, he's pretty sure that he'll punch him in the nose.

Danny placed his elbows on his desk and propped his head in his hands. He'd been racking his brain all morning as to what he did wrong last night. Did he accidentally cuddle? Did he hog the blankets? Did he snore? Whatever it was, he didn't feel like hearing Steve's excuses right now.

Steve was at the tech-table with Chin and Kono when he heard Danny come in. He was about to call him over to get him up to speed, but once he saw the look on Danny's face, he knew better than to mess with him right now. Steve turned back to Chin and Kono, continuing their conversation. He'd go talk to Danny later.

Danny spent most of the day hiding out in his office, trying to avoid a certain Navy SEAL. He kept pacing his office, trying to get his anger under control. Obviously, that wasn't working. He still wanted to punch the ever-living shit out of Steve fucking McGarrett.

Kono knocked on Danny's door before stepping into his office. She folded her arms across her chest and stared at Danny with one eyebrow raised.

Danny stared back and raised his left hand at her. "What? Why are you giving me that look for?"

Kono rolled her eyes and threw her arms in the air, resting her hands on her hips. God, why was Danny so stubborn. "You're acting like a coward. Get out there and talk to him. He's driving me crazy with the looks he keeps sending your way."

Danny stood there, mouth hanging open and his arm still suspended into the air, and took a breath before he spoke. "No. No I'm not acting like a coward. I'm doing him a favor by staying in here."

"A favor?"

"Yes. A favor. If he wants to keep his pretty face the way it is, then he'll leave me alone." he told her.

Kono shook her head. "Whatever you say brah. Just, talk to him at some point. And not with your fists, okay?"

Danny waved her off and continued his pacing and thinking. He was beginning to drive himself crazy trying to come up with a logical reason about why Steve left. He sat back down in his chair and laid his head down on his desk and started to bang his head.

Steve was in his office and watched as Danny paced around his own office. He stood up from his chair when Danny began hitting his head. Steve cautiously made his way over to Danny's office. He opened the door and slipped inside. He took a breath to calm himself. This was not going to be pretty.

"Danny…" he started.

"Not. A. Word, Steven. I don't want to hear any more of your excuses." he said, his head still banging on his desk.

Steve tried again. "Danny please. Just listen for a minute."

Danny paused mid-bang and it was like a light bulb went off in his head. He slowly raised his head and looked at Steve. "You went to Catherine's. Didn't you? You left _me_ again for _her, _didn't you?!"

When he got no response from Steve, Danny scrambled out of his chair and got in Steve's personal space and poked him in the chest. "Answer me! Did you or did you not leave me to go to her place?" he poked Steve again, just to get a rise out of him. "Answer me dammit!"

Steve couldn't look Danny in the eye and he let Danny in his personal space and poke him. What could he say? That he lied. That he's terrified of what he felt for Danny that he kept running back to Catherine because she's safe?

Danny got his answer from Steve's silence. He stepped back and nodded his head. "Okay. I get it. I'm done. I can't keep doing this. I've invested a lot of me in whatever _this_ is," Danny motioned between him and Steve, "and you can't have one foot out the door. I've given you my best. So tell me, why, why does she get the best of you, huh? Just remember this, Steven, the next time you want to leave her bed for mine, you can just stay. I can't keep sharing you so, she wins. I can't compete with her."

Steve was in full-out panic mode. This was what he was so afraid of. He desperately wanted to choose to be with Danny, but he's terrified that he'll end up fucking it up somehow. He doesn't want to lose what he has with Danny to the point where Danny will leave him as his partner as well.

He's so lost and scared that he hated to admit it to himself, let alone out loud. Steve just stood there, letting Danny's words wash over him. He opened and closed his mouth, trying to find the words to respond.

Danny watched as Steve floundered to find words. He looked away from him and shook his head. Danny made to step away, but he was stopped by Steve's hand on his wrist. He looked down at the hand on his wrist and then up at Steve expectantly, eyebrow raised.

Steve had no idea what he was doing. All he knew was that he couldn't lose Danny, as a friend, partner, and especially as his lover. He just didn't know how to tell Danny how he felt without being afraid. Ever since he's been in the Navy, he found it hard to express any kind of emotion or feelings.

Since Steve started this thing with Danny, he's felt things that Catherine never made him feel. He loved Catherine, but more as just a friend and not in the way that he loved Danny. But, he's never been good at expressing his feelings like Danny could.

He was still holding Danny's wrist, but Steve still had no idea what to say to the man. Nothing he could say could make this right and that broke him a little inside. He needed Danny. Probably much more than he should, but he doesn't care. So, why can't he tell Danny that?! God, why was it so hard to just tell the man how he felt?

Danny stood there and watched Steve. He knew Steve had something he wanted to say, but Steve was having trouble saying it. Danny sighed and pulled his wrist out of Steve's grip. "Steve, just say what you have to say or get out."

Steve took the out. He high-tailed it back to his office, tail tucked between his legs. God, he was being such a coward! Why was he making this so hard? It shouldn't be this hard! Steve was pacing his office, silently berating himself for chickening out.

Danny huffed when Steve fled his office. He sat back down at his desk and continued working on his paperwork. He was still angry but his heart was breaking because Steve was the best thing to ever happen to him. And now, it was gone. 'How am I supposed to keep working with this man?' he thought to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

Craig bit and sucked at the cuts he made on Carrie's stomach. He pulled away and looked at his handiwork. He smiled sadistically and grabbed his knife and made more cuts. He went deeper than before, to ensure that more blood would flow.

Carrie's entire body was on fire. Her shoulders were screaming to be let down, her wrists were torn and bloody, and her stomach was a complete bloody mess. Her face was soaked with tears and sweat. She was breathing heavily because of the pain being done to her body.

Craig had finished with her stomach and stood up to remove her shirt. He brought his knife up and cut away her shirt. He smiled at her, showing off his bloody teeth and lips. He pulled the duct tape from her mouth and relished in the screaming and begging.

"Please, please." she said, hoarsely. Carrie tried to pull away from him, but she screamed in agony as her muscles protested the movement.

Craig smiled another bloody smile and stepped into her personal space, holding on to her hips so she couldn't get away. He stared into her eyes and reveled in the absolute fear he saw in them. He leaned down and kissed her forcefully, letting her get a taste of her own blood.

Carrie started struggling when this psycho's bloody tongue entered her mouth. She began to gag as the metallic taste of blood entered her mouth. She felt bile rising up in her throat and she really didn't want to find out what he would do to her if she vomited in his mouth.

Apparently, she was about to find out because she couldn't hold it back anymore. That burning sensation was right there at the back of her throat and it came spilling out into the man's mouth.

Craig jumped back at the taste of vomit in his mouth. He spit that vile taste out and looked at her with feral eyes. He raised his right hand and backhanded her across her right cheek. He repeated the process with his left hand and then stomped out of the room.

He walked into his makeshift 'home' and rinsed his mouth out, grumbling to himself. The more he calmed down, he felt like he was shifting into someone else. It was like someone had flipped a switch inside his mind. Anne stared at her reflection and was disgusted by what she saw. She cleaned herself up and changed.

Anne walked around, familiarizing herself with her surroundings. She came upon a door, curiosity getting the better of her, and walked through it. She gasped when she saw the poor girl hanging in the middle of the room. Anne ran over to the bloody young woman.

"Oh my God! Sweetie, are you okay?" she asked.

Carrie looked up and gasped when she saw the psycho guy in front of her again. She tried to move, but again, her muscles screamed at the movement. It finally registered that this guy was acting strange. She looked at him and saw genuine concern on his face. 'What is with this guy?' she thought.

"Does it look like I'm okay? You're the one who did this to me!" she screamed at the guy.

Anne was completely taken aback. She took a step back and placed her hand to her chest. "I have no idea what you are talking about. I've only just met you."

Carrie stared at the guy with a what-the-fuck look on her face. 'What the fuck is wrong with this guy?! He is fucking nuts!" she thought to herself.

"Look, I don't know who the fuck you are, but I would appreciate it if you left me alone." she said, rudely.

Anne crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, you didn't have to be so rude you little bitch. By the way, my name is Anne." she turned and walked out of the room.

She started pacing the room and she walked over to the make-shift bathroom, muttering about rude bitches and splashed water on her face. And just like that, another switch flipped and Craig raised his head. Staring into the mirror, his eyes had a feral look about them. Like he wanted to kill someone. He smirked when he remembered his pretty little plaything waiting for him in the next room.

He shook his head. She will have to wait. He wanted to be alone for a while. He walked over to his bag and pulled out his many pill bottles. He shrugged and threw them back into his bag. "I don't need them." he told no one in particular.

He continued to pace the room for a bit, trying to calm his racing mind and tried to cure the restlessness he was feeling. He decided that he would go out to a bar, thinking a few drinks would calm him down. It would also get his mind off his new toy. He grabbed his keys and headed out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

Danny finally came out of his office so he could get caught up on the kidnapping case. Thankfully, Steve was still in his office and Kono was the only one at the tech-table.

"So, what's going on with this kidnapping case?" he asked her.

Kono pulled up all the information and brought Danny up to speed. "Her name's Carrie Monroe, 23. She's single and works as a waitress at the Bon Bon Cafe in downtown Honolulu. One of her co-workers called it in when Carrie didn't come into work today. They didn't get an answer from her phone and her car was still in the parking lot."

Danny folded his arms across his chest, thinking. He pulled his right arm out and propped it against his other arm. "Was there any witnesses?"

Kono shook her head. "If there were, no one came forward."

Danny put his finger to his lips and nodded. Finally, an excuse to get out of this office and away from McGarrett. "Alright, good work. I'm gonna head down there and try to dig up something."

Kono cleared the screens and followed Danny out. "I'm coming with you. The boss man is driving me nuts." she chuckled.

"Huh, tell me about it." Danny mumbled to himself.

Upon reaching the café, Danny exited the car, rant in progress. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Jeez, I swear, you're worse than McGarrett! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you two are trying to put me into an early grave! My own fuckin' team's trying to kill me." he muttered the last part as he walked toward the small café. Kono followed him, chuckling to herself.

They found Carrie's car and started looking around for clues. Kono searched around the car while Danny searched the rest of the parking lot, leading to the diner. Out of the corner of his eye, Danny caught something glistening in the sun. He walked over to the object in question and squatted down beside it.

He picked up the discarded syringe and looked at it. Yep. This poor girl was definitely kidnapped. He stood and walked over to Kono. "Found this a few feet away from the car. The poor girl was drugged."

Kono shook her head and pulled out an evidence bag so Danny could put the syringe in. "I'll have Fong check it to see what was used."

Danny nodded his head and took another look around. He spotted a car that wasn't there when they first arrived, but that's nothing out of the ordinary.

Craig stumbled out of the bar that was a few doors down from the Bon Bon Cafe. He looked over at the café and immediately sobered up and began to panic. He got in his car and drove over and parked in the same spot as before.

He watched the blond cop intently. He felt that itch creeping up again and he decided to keep his eye on the pretty loud-mouthed blond. He smirked as he drove away, needing to get back to his newest plaything.

Danny and Kono searched every inch of the parking lot and found nothing. They headed back to the Camaro. Kono headed for the driver side but Danny halted her. "Oh no you don't! I'm driving. I'd like to continue seeing my daughter thank you very much. Hand 'em over." he held out his hand and waited for Kono to drop the keys in them.

They made it back to HQ, neither noticing the car that had been following them for a few blocks. Danny parked the car and they walk into HQ, looking at the piece of evidence they found. Kono headed down to the lab to see if Fong could identify the sedative that was used. Danny went back to his office to brood.

Steve looked up just in time to watch Danny enter his office. He contemplated whether he should talk to Danny, but he stayed put in his chair as he watched Danny for a few minutes. He told himself that he would tell Danny how he felt. When he entered Danny's office, sans knocking, he opened his mouth to say it but he chickened out.

Danny came back to himself when Steve barged into his office. He raised his eyebrow at Steve. Danny knew there was something Steve wasn't telling him, but he just couldn't figure out why the man just couldn't spit it out already. Danny sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. "Is there something I can help you with, Steven?"

Steve looked down at the floor, his left hand on his hip and his right hand rubbed the back of his neck. He looked up at Danny. "Did you and Kono find anything?" he mentally kicked himself as soon as the words left his mouth.

Danny sat in his chair and stared at Steve incredulously. "That's it? That's what you stormed in here to say? You couldn't think of anything else to say to me? And to answer your question, yes we did find something."

Steve winced at the tone of Danny's voice. He kept shrinking into himself with every word Danny uttered. He perked up at Danny's last words. "Really? What did you find?" he asked, intrigued.

Again, Danny just stared at Steve. He threw his hands in the air. "We found a syringe. The poor woman was drugged before she was taken. Kono is with Fong. Hopefully, we'll get a hit on what sedative was used and where it came from. And if we're lucky, maybe we'll get some prints."

Steve nodded his head. "Good work. Let me know what you find out." he said before leaving Danny's office. He mentally berated himself for chickening out, again. He entered his office and sat down heavily in his chair.

A couple of hours later, Kono and Fong entered the bullpen saying they had news. Kono pulled everything up on the tech-table as everyone gathered around.

"Okay, our girl, Carrie, was dosed with Morphine. And we did find a partial print and we know who out kidnapper is. Meet Craig Matthew Mahoney. He's from New Jersey and he's 35. He's also Schizophrenic, Bipolar, and has Multiple Personality Disorder."

Everyone at the table gave a low whistle. Steve had a puzzled look on his face. "So, why is he in the system?"

Kono typed a few things and brought up his rap sheet. "A couple of B&E's when he was 18 and 25. He was a garbage man before he moved here five months ago. He's been the person of interest for a couple of murders in New Jersey that's similar to the guy we found a couple of days ago."

Danny was deep in thought. He knew this case seemed familiar but he couldn't put his finger on it, now he knew why. Before he left Jersey, he saw this man on the news and felt bad that he couldn't help his precinct catch him. Now, he could help his team catch this sick son of a bitch and get his crazy ass off the streets.

Steve noticed that Danny had apparently gone somewhere else in his mind. He snapped his fingers in front of Danny. "Hey D! Wake up man. Where'd you go?"

Danny slapped Steve's hand away from his face. "Would you stop that? Jeez Steven, I was just thinking. People do that sometimes. You should try it. You could probably benefit from it."

Steve smirked. "So, what were you thinking about?"

Danny pointed to the screen. "I knew this case seemed familiar, I just couldn't put my finger on it. I saw this case on the news back in Jersey before I moved here."

Steve looked at Danny, confusion and interest written on his face. "Can you remember anything? What does he look like? Does he have any patterns? What?"

Danny waved his hand at Steve. "Calm down Super SEAL. One question at a time. Yes, he does have a pattern. He takes a male, tortures and then kills him. Then, he took a female two days later, tortured, raped, and then killed. He repeats this process two more times before he stops."

Steve absorbed this information. "Okay. Did the news say anything about what the victims look like?"

Danny thought back and nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah. I remember now. The men were all in their late 20s to late 30s, wealthy with blond hair and blue eyes. The women were all in their early to mid-20s, single with brown hair and green eyes."

Kono took down the information. "That explains why he took the first vic. But why did he take the girl?"

This had the team stumped and they broke off to do their own thing. Fong went back to the lab and Chin went to the ME's office after hanging up with Max. Danny sat in his office, trying to think of anything else from the news report.

Steve was working furiously on some paperwork that the Governor was hounding him for. He looked up when his door was opened and Cath was standing in front of his desk, big smile on her face.

Steve tried not to panic as he stood and gave her a kiss. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

Catherine folded her arms around Steve's neck. "I was wondering if you were free for lunch."

Steve looked back at his paperwork. He could take a break. He smiled back at Catherine. "Yeah, I'm free. Did you have anything specific in mind?" he chanced a quick glance over at Danny's office and what he saw broke his heart.

Danny watched from his chair as the bane of his existence came bounding through the door and sauntered over to Steve's office. Danny felt tears well up in his eyes as he watched their intimate greeting. He didn't know what they were talking about that put a smile on Steve's face, but that cut him deep.

He felt as if Steve had thrown a knife into his chest, then cut it open and removed his heart; throwing it on the ground and stomped on it repeatedly. When Steve looked his way, he knew Steve could see his hurt written all over his face. He didn't care. It served the bastard right to see how much Steve had hurt him.

Danny finally let the tears fall after Steve and Catherine left the office. He cried a good five minutes before he steeled himself and continued to work all the while his heart continued to break.


	7. Chapter 7

Warnings: contains rape. if this triggers you, please do not read.

Just wanna say thanks to everyone who has been reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following this story. And also thanks for sticking with me through all the angst and pain I've been putting our boys through. More chapters to come, I promise.

Now, on to the fic! Enjoy! :)

* * *

Craig watched the short blond man enter the building before he left. He was smiling widely at the thought of killing a cop. Sure, it went off his normal pattern, but these are unusual circumstances. He pulled into his warehouse, in a very good mood, and went to visit his little playmate.

He smiled maliciously when he caught sight of Carrie hanging in the middle of the room; blood was still running in rivulets down her arms. He quietly sidled up next to her and tucked her hair behind her ear. He grinned and then chuckled when she screamed.

Carrie tried to move away from her captor, but her body was numb from hanging so long. She whimpered when he grabbed her hair and pulled her head back.

"Pl-please. N-no m-more." she begged, hoarsely.

Craig leaned in and sniffed at her neck before licking a stripe up to her ear.

"Sweetheart, we're just getting started." he whispered in her ear before licking the shell of it.

Carrie shuddered, and not in the pleasurable way. She began to cry and she watched him pick up another knife and drug it across her skin again. She bit her bottom lip to hold back her screams, not giving this psycho the satisfaction.

Craig watched her closely, smirking. He brought his knife up to her arms and dug the point of the knife into the soft skin of her right inner wrist. He started to cut her arm all the way down to her inner elbow, not deep enough so that she bleeds out too quickly. He stood there transfixed, staring as the blood flowed down the tanned skin of her arm.

He stepped closer to her right side and began to lick at the blood droplets while he gave the same treatment to her left arm. He watched the blood fall as he licked and sucked at her right arm.

Carrie couldn't hold back her screams and whimpers any longer. She begged and pleaded for him to either stop or just kill her. Tears started flowing down her face again and she felt humiliated that she couldn't fight him back, to at least try to get away.

Craig pulled away from Carrie's arm and smiled his sadistic, bloody smile at her. He brought his knife up and made a few meticulous cuts over the expanse of her torso. He set his knife down and took a step back to admire his handiwork. He stepped forward again and grabbed at her pants, pulling them and her underwear down.

Carrie's eyes widened and she doubled her efforts to get away from him. "Please, no. Don't do this. Please, please." she begged, fresh tears falling down her pale cheeks.

Craig moved behind her, opening his own pants. He ran his hands down the front of her thighs, plastering his chest to her back. He spread her legs as wide as they would go and he thrust inside her until he was buried to the hilt. He relished for a few minutes in the scream she let out. He listened as the echo died down before he leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"I've been watching you. I've seen how those other men drooled over you. I watched as you flirted back with them and all I could think about was how you're mine." he growled, as he forcefully pulled out then pushed back in.

He kept up his punishing rhythm until he felt the slip-slide of blood and semen slicking over his cock. He relished in the quiet screams and whimpers coming from the young woman in front of him. He pulled away from her and zipped himself back up. He walked back in front of her and picked up his knife, making some more cuts.

"Now, you stay here and bleed nicely for me. I have a certain loudmouthed blond to take care of." he left the warehouse and went back to the building where he last saw the man. He smiled when he saw the blond's car was still there and he waited for the feisty cop to leave to make his move.


	8. Chapter 8

Yay! Update!

The song I used in this chapter is 'All You Ever' by Hunter Hayes.

I was listening to it the other day and it just fit Steve so perfectly, that I had to use it.

Enjoy!

* * *

All throughout their lunch date, Steve had been lost in his thoughts. He couldn't get Danny's look of deep hurt out of his mind. He knew he fucked up big time, now he needed to figure out how to fix this mess and make Danny happy. And if he plays his cards right, both of them will finally be happy.

Catherine regarded Steve with calculating eyes. She knew exactly what Steve had been up to with Danny and she would've had to have been blind to not see that hurt look on Danny's face as they left. It took all her strength to keep her smug smile off her face.

But looking at Steve now, he kept checking out on her and checking his watch like he couldn't wait to get out of there. In this moment, she knew she lost Steve. She has been permanently placed in the friend zone. There's no way that she can compete with Danny. Not when he's managed to capture Steve's heart and mind.

Catherine reached across the table and touched Steve's hand to gain his attention. She chuckled softly when Steve jumped.

"Easy sailor." she teased, before becoming serious. "Listen, I-I know about you and Danny. Have for a while now actually. And I know I should've told you sooner, but I was being selfish and wanted you for myself."

Steve stared at her in absolute horror. He was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. First Danny and now Catherine? God, it felt like his world was crashing down around him. Steve's chest felt too tight, his heart hammering against his ribs, and sweat broke out over his entire body.

Catherine immediately grabbed Steve's hand. "Steve. Steve, calm down. It's okay. Everything is going to be fine. But you need to go now and talk to him. Go, go on." she shooed him, waving her arms at him.

Steve barely registered her words over the sound of blood rushing in his ears. When they finally registered, he looked at Catherine in shock. "You're not angry that I was playing you? I-I thought there'd be more yelling and you leaving me." he confessed, embarrassed that he let that much slip out.

Catherine smiled softly, but sadly at him. "Hey, no matter what happens, I'll always be here for you as your friend. Now, go get your man."

Steve stood from the table and kissed Catherine on the cheek. "Thanks Cath. And I really am sorry."

"It's alright Steve. I forgive you. Now go before I kick your ass, McGarrett!"

"I'd like to see you try Rollins!" he laughed as he left the café. He jumped into his truck and made his way back to HQ and Danny.

Steve was going over the words he was going to say to Danny when the song on the radio made him stop and reconsider his strategy.

_You give me chances and I let you down  
You waited for words that I couldn't get out  
I have no excuses for the way that I am  
I was clueless then, I couldn't understand_

_That all that you wanted  
And all that you needed  
Was a side of me I never let you see  
And I wish I could love you  
And make you believe it  
Because that's all you ever wanted  
That's all you ever wanted  
From me, from me_

Steve found a little clearing off the side of the road and pulled off. He wanted to give this song his full attention, something inside telling him that he needed to hear this song.

_Could I be selfish, or lost in my pride  
Afraid to be forward or just too scared to try  
And now I'm without you, and it took distance to see  
That losing you, means losing everything_

_When all that you wanted  
And all that you needed  
Was a side of me I never let you see  
And I wish I could love you  
And make you believe it  
Because that's all you ever wanted  
That's all you ever wanted from me_

Listening to this song, Steve had to find Danny and tell him everything he should've said that night at Danny's apartment. He put his truck in gear and high-tailed it back to HQ.

_Well is it too late and are you too far  
To turn around and let me be…let me be_

_All that you wanted  
And all that you needed  
I'll show the side of me I never let you see  
I wish I could love you  
And make you believe it  
Because that's all you ever wanted  
That's all you ever wanted  
It's all you ever wanted  
From me  
Oh, from me_

By the time the song ended, Steve arrived at HQ and jogged inside and bounded into the main office. Steve headed straight for Danny's office. He was going over what he was about to say and didn't notice that Danny wasn't there.

"Hey Danny, I gotta…" he looked up when he entered the empty office. He looked around and saw the destruction inside. He went back out to the bullpen and saw Chin at the tech-table. "Hey Chin, you seen Danny?" he asked, pointing back at Danny's office.

Chin looked up at Steve, sadness etched in his gently smile. "He took off a few minutes after you and Catherine left."

Steve groaned and turned on his heel to leave the office. He looked back when Chin grabbed his wrist. He turned around to face the man. Steve was kind of taken aback by the look on Chin's face.

Chin crossed his arms over his chest and gave Steve a hard glare. "You need to talk to him brah. He ran out of here like a bat out of hell and he was hurt. Like someone just ripped his heart out of his chest hurt. You need to go fix this. What you did was low brah."

At least Steve had the decency to look like a scolded child. He lowered his head. "I know. I've been acting like a complete asshole lately, but I'm going to fix it. I swear."

Chin gave a firm nod of his head and pointed at Steve. "You better. I don't know how much longer Kono and I can take this tension."

They both shared a laugh before Steve left the office. He climbed into the truck and headed to Danny's apartment.


	9. Chapter 9

The song in this chapter is 'More Like Her' by Miranda Lambert.

As with Steve in the last chapter, this song described Danny's feelings about Catherine perfectly.

With that being said, enjoy the update!

* * *

Danny tried to finish his paperwork, but he just couldn't get the image of Steve and Catherine out of his head. He threw his pen down on his desk and stood up. He ran his fingers through his hair as he paced his office.

He paused in front of his desk and looked down at all the paperwork, well Steve's paperwork, and his anger flared up like an inferno. He swiped everything off his desk and threw his desk chair against the wall. His chest was heaving and he threaded his fingers in his hair, gripping it tight.

"I can't do this. I can't do this." he muttered to himself. He scooped up his car keys from the floor and fled his office yelling, "I'm leaving early" as he left. He jogged over to the Camaro and peeled out of the parking lot and headed for his shit hole of an apartment.

Craig followed the silver car, trying to keep his excitement at bay so he doesn't get caught. It was hard to keep up with the feisty cop due to his somewhat reckless driving.

Danny didn't realize at how fast he was going until he looked down at the speedometer and lifted his foot off the pedal. He flipped on the radio, so he didn't have to think anymore. He cursed McGarrett and his stupid country station. He reached over, fully intending to change the station, but the song that played through the speakers caught his attention.

_She's beautiful in her simple little way  
She don't have too much to say when she gets mad  
She understands she don't let go of anything  
Even when the pain gets really bad  
Guess I should've been more like that_

_You had it all for a pretty little while  
And somehow you made me smile when I was sad  
You took a chance on a bruised and beaten heart  
Then you realized you wanted what you had  
I guess I should've been more like that_

_I should have held onto my pride  
I should have never let you lie  
I guess you got what you deserved  
I guess I should've been more like her_

Danny felt the anger and betrayal settle in his chest as he listened to this song. He was half tempted to shut it off, the pain too much to bear as he thought about how this song related to him and how he felt about Catherine. He just really wanted to beat McGarrett to a bloody pulp for making him feel this way.

He's just so fucking angry and so madly, head-over-heels in love with that crazy ass, stupid, son of a bitch SEAL, that he doesn't know whether to punch him or kiss him breathless. He brushed away the angry tears that fell down his cheeks, unbidened. He couldn't believe that he put his heart out there, again, only to have it crushed to dust and blown away by the wind.

_Forgiving you, well she's stronger than I am  
You don't look much like a man from where I'm at  
It's plain to see desperation showed it's truth  
You love her and she loves you with all she has  
I guess I should've been more like that_

_I should have held onto my pride  
I should have never let you lie  
I guess you got what you deserve  
I guess I should've been more like her_

_She's beautiful in her simple, little way_

When the song finished, Danny clicked off the radio and turned to enter his apartment complex. He pulled into an empty parking space and made his way quickly to his apartment, never noticing the car that followed him in.

Danny closed the door behind him and began throwing his stuff, letting his anger shine through. He managed to punch another hole in the wall before he just started wailing on the wall, not stopping until his knuckles were bruised and bloodied.

He collapsed to his knees in the middle of the living room, exhaustion and anger warring with his body. He stared down at his bloodied hands through watery eyes and finally broke. He let the tears roll down his face as the rage continued to boil in his belly.

Craig waited a few minutes before he silently made his way to the detective's apartment. He peeked in through the window and watched as the blond broke everything in his apartment. He continued to watch the scene unfold before him, smirking. 'This is going to be easier than I thought' he mumbled to himself. He waited for the perfect moment before knocking on the door, syringe in hand.

Danny was brought out of his sorrow by someone at his door. He cleared his face of tears and figured that it was one of his teammates at the door.

"Go away. I'm fine." he yelled, his voice hoarse from screaming and crying.

He groaned when the knocking became more persistent. He winced when he stood up, his bad knee protesting being bent for so long. He limped over to the door and swung it open.

"Look guys, I'm…" he didn't get to finish his sentence when a punch landed square on his jaw, propelling him back a little ways due to the impact. He barely had time to recover before another punch landed on his face. He shook his head to clear his head when his attacker came up behind him and injected him with Morphine.

"Nighty night detective." was the last thing Danny heard before succumbing to the drugs.

Craig hoisted Danny up onto his shoulder and carried him out to his car. He opened the trunk and unceremoniously dumped the detective inside. He placed duct tape over Danny's mouth, wrists and ankles. He shut the trunk and climbed back into the driver's seat and drove off to the warehouse.


	10. Chapter 10

Steve sighed with relief when he saw the Camaro at the apartment complex. He parked his truck and headed toward Danny's apartment. Upon reaching the door, Steve's instincts went on high alert as it was wide open. He quickly drew his weapon and checked the apartment.

He holstered his gun when the small space was cleared. He forced himself to calm down and take in his surroundings. He took in the overturned, smashed furniture and the many holes in the wall; the cracked drywall with blood mixed in. He wiped the sweat from his face and placed a hand on his hip and continued to look around for clues.

Steve pulled out his phone and called Chin. "Chin, you and Kono need to get over to Danny's now. I think our killer's taken him."

Chin heard the panic rising in Steve's voice and he motioned for Kono to follow him. "Right. We're on our way boss."

Kono looked at Chin with confusion. "What's going on cuz?"

"Danny's missing. Steve's at his place and he thinks our killer has him."

As Steve waited for Chin and Kono to arrive, he tried to calm himself down. He'd be no help to Danny if he got sidelined because he couldn't keep himself under control. He began to pace the apartment, trying to reign in his fear and worry.

During his pacing, he found Danny's phone in the middle of the room and the syringe by the door. He's pissed, scared, and trying really hard not to go off the rails and risk getting thrown in jail.

He needed to find Danny before it's too late. Steve was really kicking himself for waiting til it was almost too late to tell Danny how he really felt about him. Steve kept mentally berating himself and finding Danny was Five-0's number one priority. He could give two shits what Jameson had to say about it. He'd take whatever punishment the Governor decided to give him.

Chin and Kono finally arrived at Danny's place and were greeted with a frantic Steve. Kono began to assess the scene while Chin approached Steve.

"Steve, we're going to find him. And you freaking out is not going to help Danny at all." Chin said, his hand resting comfortingly on Steve's shoulder.

Steve ran his fingers through his hair and nodded his head. "Yeah, no, I know. I just really have to find him Chin."

Chin smiled sympathetically at Steve and gently patted his shoulder. "I know. We will. We should go back to HQ. We have a lot of searching to do."

Kono walked up to the two men and placed her hands on her hips. "Well, from what I can tell, the room could have been destroyed while Danny was being taken or Danny did it himself before the kidnapping."

Steve turned away and interlaced his finger behind his head. He hoped that this mess was caused by Danny fighting back and not Danny possibly hurting himself because of him. He needed to find Danny and fix this immediately. Steve turned back to his teammates and steeled his features.

"We need to get back to HQ. We have work to do." he pushed past Chin and Kono and got in his truck and sped off toward HQ.

Kono looked at her cousin. "We better find Danny fast or there's going to be hell to pay and Steve won't be so merciful."

Chin nodded in agreement. "I'm with you on that one, cuz."

They head out and back to HQ where they find Steve, huddled around the tech table, studying every piece of information they have on this case. Chin and Kono joined him and together worked well into the night and the next day, hoping to find some clue about where Danny could be.


	11. Chapter 11

Wow, two chapters in one week! :)

Enjoy!

* * *

Danny woke to a pounding in his head and an unpleasant ache in his shoulders. He looked up to find his wrists strapped in chains. He groaned when he realized what was going on. He took a look around the warehouse, trying to catalog any details he might need for later. His eyes landed on their missing girl and he thought for sure that she was dead. It wouldn't hurt to check.

"Hey," he swallowed, wetting his throat and tried again. "Hey. Are you still with me? Hello? Can you hear me?"

Carrie slowly opened her eyes. She could hear someone talking to her, but it sounded far away or coming from underwater. She looked over in the direction of where the voice came from.

"Yeah. I-I can hear you." she replied, still hoarse from her earlier screams.

Before Danny could reply, they heard the creaking of a door opening and Carrie whimpered and tried to get away. Danny took his eyes off the door and looked back over at the girl. He took in her appearance and saw the multiple cuts and the dried blood and semen on her thighs. He closed his eyes and knew that it was too late to save her, but he's sure as hell gonna try.

He looked back as his assailant stepped into the light and watched as he headed straight for the girl.

"Hey, psycho! Leave her alone! You son-of-a bitch, get away from her." he yelled.

Craig paused halfway to Carrie and looked at the detective, a scowl on his face. He changed his course and sauntered up to the blond detective.

"And what are you going to do to stop me, Blondie?"

Danny gritted his teeth at the nickname and stared the guy straight in the eye.

"I'll put you in prison for a very long time. You have no idea who you're dealing with. My partner is probably scouring the island looking for me by now. And when he does, you're going to be in a world of hurt."

Craig snarled at the blond cop and pulled his fist back; connecting with the bruise he left earlier on Danny's face.

"He won't find you! No one will! All these warehouses look the same. By the time he does find you, you'll be dead and I'll be long gone by then.

Danny mustered up all the strength he could, pulling himself up with the help of the chain, and kicked this psycho straight in the chest.

"Fuck you! You don't know my partner like I do. He'd move heaven and earth just to find me or anyone of our teammates!"

Craig stumbled back from the kick. He smirked as he rubbed his chest. This cop obviously was more feisty than he gave him credit for. He walked back up to the mouthy blond detective.

"Mm…feisty. I like that. Gives me more of a challenge and it's more fun to watch you squirm."

Danny glared at this guy, hiding his fear behind his bravado and his mouth.

"Give me your best shot, you fucking bastard!"

Craig's eyes went dark as he started throwing punches. Danny grunted as the blows came harder and faster to his face and midsection. Craig pulled back, breathing erratic, but a smirk on his face as he admired his handiwork.

Danny groaned in pain when the blows stopped coming. He could already feel his left eye begin to swell shut and spit out the blood that was welling up in his mouth from his split lip. He watched as he made his way back over to Carrie and opened his mouth to protest, but another burst of pain shoot through his battered body.

Craig leered at the young woman as he circled around her, brushing his fingers over her chilled skin. He stopped in front of her and picked up his knife. He was feeling playful and he made a few more cuts into her skin. He watched the blood flow from the fresh cuts, smirking over at the detective.

Danny watched as this sick fuck slowly bled this poor girl to death. He glared at him with his one good eye and tried to get out of his chains.

"Let her go, you sick bastard! I swear I will kill you myself you freak!"

Craig stood behind Carrie and grabbed a fistful of hair, yanking her head back forcefully. He brought the cold metal of the knife up to her throat and smirked at Danny before quickly slicing her throat wide open.

Danny screamed as he watched and listened to the young woman choke on her own blood. Danny turned a hate filled eye on Craig.

"I swear to God that I'm going to kill you, you very sick piece of shit!"

Craig whirled around and stuck his knife deep in Danny's right shoulder. He smirked as Danny screamed out in pain. He twisted the blade before yanking it out and leaned in to whisper in Danny's ear.

"You can believe all you want that your partner is going to find you. But the truth is, detective, no one will be able to find you and even if they did, you'll be dead."

Danny watched him laugh maniacally and unlock Carrie's chains and she fell into a boneless heap on the floor. He looked away from her, guilt gripping his heart because he couldn't save her.


	12. Chapter 12

What's this? Another update? :D

Well, enjoy!

* * *

Craig dumped the tarp-wrapped body into his trunk. He looked around warily, hoping he wouldn't be seen. He got in his car and drove to a remote location.

Little did Craig know, there were a couple of teenagers walking down the street and they saw him put the body in his car. They heard about a friend of a friend who found a dead body in a warehouse like this one. They freaked out and ran, stumbling and tripping over each other to get back to their car.

Steve had barely slept since Danny's kidnapping. He's been racked with guilt ever since and the nightmares are beginning to get out of control. He's been moody, snapping at everyone for no reason, he's got bags under his eyes and red-rimmed from lack of sleep.

For the time being, Chin and Kono have given him a wide berth, unless they have something about Danny. Both of the cousins have mainly stayed in their offices while Steve has been glued to the tech table.

Steve had gone over the evidence for three days and his frustration grew and grew to the point where he wanted to destroy something. Staring down at the table through bloodshot eyes, fists clenched at his sides, Steve was beginning to lose hope that he'll never find Danny.

His luck was about to change when two teenagers ran into HQ, breathless and babbling incoherently. Steve was trying to get them to calm down as Chin and Kono exited their offices.

"Hey, hey, calm down. What happened?" he asked calmly, even though he was anything but.

The two teens stumbled their way through what they saw and that bit of hope flickered back to life in Steve's chest. He could feel himself getting excited and the feeling of shooting someone buzzed under his skin. Following the teens' description of where they were, Steve high-tailed it out of the office, not even bothering to wait for Chin and Kono. The only thing he had on his mind was 'gotta find Danny'. He jumped in his truck and sped out of the parking lot and headed in the direction of where Danny might be.

Craig parked his car back at his warehouse. He checked on his newest acquisition and headed for the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator to pull out a beer, but decided on a water bottle instead.

Anne opened the bottle and took a generous drink. She looked around and scrunched her face up at how dirty this place was. She set her water bottle down and began to tidy up the place. When her makeshift living quarters was somewhat presentable, she remembered the young woman hanging in the next room.

She looked around her tiny bathroom for some hydrogen peroxide to clean that poor girl's wounds. She let out a triumphant sound when she found it and some gauze pads. When she opened the door, she was greeted with a blond man and no sign of the young woman anywhere.

Anne rushed into the room and placed her supplies on the table and gazed at the empty set of chains, blood littering the ground beneath them. Her attention was brought away from the blood stained ground to the groaning of the blond man. She approached him cautiously.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Danny groaned as he came to. The pain in his shoulder was a dull throb now, but the rest of him ached from being suspended like this for so long. He could hear someone else in the room with him and he knew it was their guy.

But, something was off. His voice was different and that set off warning bells in Danny's mind. He raised his head and was met with concerned green eyes. He realized that this must be one of Craig's personalities. So, he decided to play along.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Who are you? I don't think we've met."

Danny lifted his head and he had to fight back a laugh. Seeing a 6'3" muscular guy with sharp facial features, tattoo sleeves and diamond stud earrings trying to act like a woman, it's hard for Danny to keep his laughter in check.

Anne smiled sweetly at him before sauntering over toward him. She noticed the bruising on his face and frowned. She gently turned his head to examine it.

"Tsk, you poor thing. Who did that to you?" she asked, genuinely concerned.

Danny rolled his good eye. "Oh, just some psycho asshole who may be trying to kill me."

Anne gasped before walking back over to the table and grabbed her supplies. She wet a piece of gauze with some of the peroxide and carefully cleaned Danny's cuts.

Danny hissed as the peroxide hit his open wounds.

"You never answered my earlier question." Danny said between cleanings.

Anne shyly smiled at him. "Anne. Anne Smith. And you?"

"Danny. Danny Williams. It's nice to meet you Anne."

"Likewise Danny. Ya know, you are much nicer than that girl who was here. She acted like I was crazy. The nerve of some people."

Danny couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah. I know what you mean."

They fell into a comfortable silence after that and Anne cleaned Danny up as much as she could. She couldn't help noticing how handsome Danny was, bruises and all. She bit her bottom lip and let her fingers linger longer on Danny's face than was probably necessary.

Danny watched Anne like a hawk, well as well as he could through one eye. He saw a faint blush creep up on her cheeks and the unnecessary lingering touches to his face. His one good eye widened in horror. Anne was flirting with him! How was this his life? Of course he'd get hit on by a psycho killer's female alter ego. Steve will never let him live this down.

At the thought of Steve, Danny felt his anger, hurt, and betrayal hit him full force. He closed his eye and clenched his hands, which caused a bit of pain to shoot down his forearms. When his son of a bitch partner was finally done taking his sweet ass time in finding him, Danny was going to kill him.

Anne gathered up her supplies and quietly left the room. She put the gauze pads in the trash and returned everything else to its proper place. She let out yawn and decided she could take a quick nap. All that cleaning and then taking care of Danny took a lot out of her.

Danny was beginning to worry. What if Steve didn't find him in time? If Danny actually believed in all that spirit mumbo jumbo and Steve got him killed, oh he's definitely coming back and haunting the shit outta Steve.


	13. Chapter 13

So, today is my birthday and to honor it, I'll be posting two chapters today. This is the first one. :)

Enjoy!

* * *

Steve pulled up outside the warehouse and saw a car sitting out front. He called Chin and gave him the license plate number.

"Please tell me this car belongs to our guy?" he pleaded.

"It's our guy. Kono and I will be there soon with HPD. Please, for Danny's sake, stay put until we get there."

Steve was already out of his truck and gearing up when he got the confirmation. At Chin's next words, he paused and took a breath and told Chin he'd wait for backup. Steve pocketed his phone and loaded up on weapons and made sure his thigh holsters were secured and loaded. He pulled out a pair of his resolution binoculars. He was growing bored and restless.

He wanted to go in there and get Danny and screw the consequences. The man he loved was in there getting god knows what done to him and he's stuck out here, waiting for fucking backup.

The building was quiet, a little too quiet for Steve's liking. He's done waiting. He could have the suspect apprehended and Danny out by the time backup arrives. His mind made up, Steve headed over to the warehouse, weapon drawn and peeked in through the windows. What he saw made his heart stop and his whole entire body went cold.

Craig woke up, feeling refreshed and ready to deal out more torture to the mouthy blond cop. He entered the room and headed straight for his table. He picked up his favorite knife and ran his fingers lovingly over it, almost as if he were caressing a lover.

Danny watched him as he entered the room and pick up the knife. He knew his days were numbered and he hoped that Steve would find him in time, even though Danny was still pissed at the man. He struggled with his bonds and hissed as the metal dug into the soft skin of his inner wrists.

Craig turned and watched as the cop struggled in his chains. His eyes tracked the movement of the blood flowing down the cop's arms. He sauntered over and made quick work of removing Danny's shirt and tie.

"I'll have you know that those were my two favorite clothing items." Danny snarked.

Craig didn't say a word, just made a few cuts across Danny's lower abdomen, inches above the waistline of Danny's pants.

Steve was pulled out of his trance by the sounds of Danny's screams echoing throughout the empty warehouse. He didn't even think, just moved. He opened the door and silently slipped inside. He had to do all he could to not shoot the man for making Danny sound like that. He never wanted to hear Danny scream, unless it was from pleasure, ever again.

He was glad for the solitary light, leaving Steve with the darkness he needed to sneak up on his target. He zeroed in his laser focus on the task at hand and that was to rescue Danny at all costs. Steve circled around and came up behind his intended target, barrel of his gun pressed to the back of Craig's head.

"Drop the knife if you know what's good for you and back away from him." Steve growled.

The room went silent and Danny held his breath. He needed to make sure that this really was his Steve and not some pain induced hallucination. He waited to see who would make the first move: Steve or Craig. He's not so sure he wanted to know the answer.

Craig paused in his movements when the gun was pressed to his head. He stared straight at Danny and smirked. "Huh, I guess I was wrong cop. They did come looking for you."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Told you my partner would find me. No one ever listens to me."

"It's because you're easy to tune out when you get into one of your rants." Steve couldn't help but rile his partner up.

"Shut up, you. I'm still pissed at you, so hurry up and get me out of here so I can go back to avoiding you." he sniped.

Steve, momentarily hurt by that statement, pushed it aside and went back to the task at hand. "I said to put the knife down. This is your last warning or else I'll shoot you where you stand."

Danny could only see Steve's silhouette in the faint light, but he didn't need to see Steve's face to know that he was in full SEAL mode. No matter how pissed Danny was at the man, it always sent shivers down his spine when Steve got like this. Danny was watching Craig the entire time and knew something bad was about to happen.

Quick as a whip, Craig stabbed the knife low in Danny's abdomen, pulling a scream from the blond. Danny looked down at where the knife was sticking out of his body. Somewhere in the distance, he heard the sounds of gunshots and his name being screamed.

It was like everything was moving around Steve in slow motion. All too quickly, everything came roaring back at him and he saw the knife sticking out of Danny's body. Steve saw red. He grabbed Craig by the back of his neck and slammed him down into the concrete floor. Steve took his time with Craig before he put two bullets in him. Of course they were non-fatal, but he felt better. He raced back over to Danny, frantically screaming his partner's name and searching for the keys at the same time.

"Danny! Danny, stay with me, Danny! Don't you dare think about dying on me!" Not finding the keys on the table, he went and searched Craig's pockets and finally found them.

He ran back over to Danny and stepped behind him, unlocking the rusty chains from around Danny's bloody wrists. He caught Danny before he could hit the ground, wrapping his arms gently around Danny's waist. He lowered the both of them to the floor, resting Danny's head on his lap.

Steve pulled off his shirt and balled it up before removing the knife from Danny's abdomen. He quickly put the shirt over the wound and applied pressure. He looked down at Danny and saw how pale he already was and he was having difficulty keeping his eyes open.

"Danny, hey Danny! You gotta keep your eyes open, okay bud? C'mon Danny talk to me."

Steve was frantic and trying to stomp down on the bubbling panic attack. He pulled out his phone and called Chin.

"Yeah boss?"

"Chin, I need you to get an ambulance her ASAP. Danny's hurt."

Chin heard the urgency in Steve's voice and relayed Steve's message to Kono. "And what about our guy?"

"He'll be fine. He's got two non-fatal wounds, but I don't care about him. I care about Danny. And right now, he's top priority."

Kono ended her call and spoke loudly so Steve could hear. "Ambulance is on its way boss. Hang tight, we're almost there."

Steve hung up and turned his attention back to Danny. His shirt was rapidly filling with blood, so he stripped off his t-shirt and placed it over his other shirt.

Danny could vaguely hear a voice coming from somewhere above him. It sounded like he was underwater; everything was muffled. He felt cold and his vision was fuzzy and he couldn't remember what happened. He tried to focus on the voice that was talking to him; it sounded familiar.

Steve kept pressure on the knife wound with one hand as he ran his fingers of the other through Danny's hair. He was trying, and failing, to keep himself together.

"God Danny, I'm so sorry. This is my entire fault. You gotta stay with me Danny, alright? Gracie needs her Danno and I-I need you too. I'm so sorry. I should've told you the truth and maybe then we wouldn't be here."

Danny's hearing came back into focus and he managed to catch the tail end of Steve's sentence.

"What are you talking about Steven? What truth?" Danny asked.

Steve looked down at Danny, giving a choked laugh/sob combination. "God Danny. It's good to hear your voice. I thought I was losing you for a minute there."

Danny's face scrunched up in confusion. "Lose me? What are you talking about? I'm right here, babe."

Now it was Steve's turn to be confused. "You don't remember what happened, do you?"

Danny was about to respond when he's suddenly slammed with everything all at once.

"Oh my God! I've been stabbed! I've been beat to hell, cut up, flirted with by a psycho killer, and to top it all off, I've been fucking stabbed!"

Danny tried to wiggle out of Steve's grasp but fell right back down as a searing pain ripped through his abdomen. His vision began to swim as the pain ratcheted up and sweat broke out over his body. He was still shaking and he knew it wouldn't be too long before he went into shock, if he wasn't already.

Steve kept up his soothing motions in Danny's hair, trying to calm him down.

"Danny, Danny, hey, hey, you gotta calm down, alright. Now's not the time to start to freak out on me buddy, okay?"

Danny looked up at Steve and saw the wild look in those blue-green eyes. Being the awesome detective that he was, Danny also saw regret, guilt, panic, and love in Steve's eyes. He didn't dwell too much on the love and focused more on the other three emotions. He should've known that McGarrett would blame himself for this happening.

"Hey, stop blaming yourself. This wasn't your fault, okay? No one knew that the psycho was going to target me next." he tried to reassure the taller man.

Steve shook his head, trying to keep his tears at bay. "No, this is entirely my fault. If only I had told the truth then none of this would have happened. Danny I'm so sorry. I've been such an idiot."

Danny brought his hand up and placed it on the side of Steve's face, trying to calm his frantic partner.

"Hey Steve, Steve, you gotta calm down now, okay? You're not making any sense babe, so how bout we get out of here and then we can talk later, alright?"

Just then, Steve heard the sirens and relaxed a little. He sighed with relief when he saw the paramedics headed toward them. He didn't stray too far, not wanting to let Danny out of his sight, not after what happened three days ago.

Chin walked over to Steve. "How is he?"

"A bit battered and bruised. I'll know more when he gets to the hospital. Listen, can you and Kono take over from here? I need to be with him."

Chin nodded. "Of course. Take as long as you need. Kono and I can manage without our fearless leader for a while."

Steve patted Chin's shoulder as he followed the paramedics to the ambulance, getting in the back with Danny.


	14. Chapter 14

As promised, the second update. I guess this chapter could be considered fluffy. Grace makes an appearance.

Enjoy! :)

* * *

Steve paced the waiting room floor, anxiously, as he waited for any news on Danny.

"Uncle Steve!"

He turned at the sound of Grace's voice, catching her in his arms and held her tight. "Hey kiddo."

"How's daddy?" she asked into Steve's neck.

Steve looked over at Rachel, looking as conservative as ever, but with concern written all over her face. Steve leaned his head atop of Grace's. "He's gonna be alright. The doctors are still working on him."

"Can I see him?"

"Not yet kiddo. The doctor will tell me when he's allowed to have visitors. How about you and your mom head back home and I'll call when the doctor has more news."

"I wanna stay here with you." she pouted.

Steve looked at Rachel, hoping for a yes but will respect whatever she decided. He kept his hold on Gracie, feeling less anxious.

Rachel watched the two of them and smiled slightly. She crossed her arms over her chest. "She may stay. Just have her home at a decent hour. She has school tomorrow."

Grace broke out into a bright smile and wiggled out of Steve's arms to go hug her mother. Steve smiled gratefully at Rachel.

"Thank you. I'll have her home before bedtime. Danny will be happy to see her."

Rachel nodded her head. "Well, it would be rather selfish of me not to let Danny see her while he's in the hospital. I'll see you later Grace."

"Bye mommy."

Grace went back over to Steve and climbed back into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. Steve walked over and sat down in a chair and listened as Grace talked about everything going on at school. He stroked over her hair to distract him from thinking about Danny.

Steve saw the doctor approaching and he stood, Grace still plastered to his hip. He looked at the doctor expectantly.

"How is he? Can we see him?"

The doctor held up his hands. "Take it easy Commander. He's going to be fine. He's going to be sore for a little while, but he will be alright. He's getting set up in a room now. I'll have a nurse take you too him."

Steve sighed with relief and smiled down at Grace. "You hear that Gracie. We get to go see Danno."

She returned Steve's smile with her own and laid her head back down on Steve's shoulder as he followed the nurse to Danny's room. Steve entered the room quietly, noticing that Danny was asleep. He motioned for Grace to be quiet and he pulled the chair in the room close to Danny's bed. He positioned Grace so that she was sitting comfortably on his lap.

They sat there for a while, quietly chatting while waiting for Danny to wake up. Grace became quiet for a few minutes, looking at her father before looking at Steve.

"Uncle Steve, do you love daddy?" she asked with all the innocence an eight year old can have.

Steve was caught off guard for a moment. He looked over at a sleeping Danny and smiled. He could feel warmth spreading throughout his body and for once, he didn't feel afraid to admit how he felt about Danny. He looked down at Grace, smile still on his face.

"Yeah. I really do love him kiddo."

"Good. You make Danno happy and he deserves to be happy. And you also deserve to be happy Uncle Steve."

"Thank you Gracie. I really needed to hear that." he hugged her tightly and continued to look at Danny. He committed every bruise, cut, and stab wound to memory as a reminder that he almost lost the one person who meant the world to him.

Danny began to stir, feeling eyes watching him. He opened his own and looked to his left to see Steve and his daughter sitting in a chair; Grace curled up in Steve's protective arms. Danny took his eyes off his daughter and looked up at Steve. He felt his anger, betrayal and hurt flare in his chest, but it wasn't as strong as a few days ago.

He really looked at Steve and saw the dark circles under his eyes; which told him Steve hasn't slept in days. He was also pale and thin. Danny frowned as he took in Steve's features.

"You look awful babe."

Steve was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of Danny's voice. He smiled at the blond.

"I could say the same for you Danno."

Danny winced as he tried to sit up and gave up. He looked back at Steve.

"How bad is it?"

Steve looked down at Grace and noticed that she had fallen asleep. He looked back at Danny.

"A few cuts and bruises. You've got bruised ribs and a couple of stab wounds. Doctor said the knife missed hitting anything major. You'll be sore for a few weeks but you're gonna be fine."

Danny nodded. "Okay. How did you get Gracie?"

"Rachel came by when she heard you were in the hospital. Grace wanted to stay with me and Rachel said she could as long as I bring her home before bedtime."

Grace awoke at the sound of voices. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Uncle Steve? Who're you talking to?"

"Hey kiddo. Look who's awake."

Grace looked toward the bed and her face lit up like a Christmas tree. She leaped down from Steve's lap and carefully climbed into the bed. She wrapped her arms around Danny's neck.

"Danno!"

Danny wrapped his arms around his baby girl, ignoring the pain.

"Hey monkey."

Steve motioned that he was going to step out and give him some time with Grace. He went down to the cafeteria to get some coffee. He collapsed into a chair and let the events of the last three days wash over him. He was exhausted, starving, dirty and emotionally drained.

Danny was smiling as he listened to Grace tell him about school and the shopping spree Rachel too her on last weekend.

"I can't wait to see your new outfits. And I'm so excited for our weekend this week." he enthused.

"Can we go over to Uncle Steve's?" she asked.

Danny bit his lower lip. "I don't know monkey. Things between me and Uncle Steve are kind of complicated at the moment."

"But, you love him. Don't you Danno?" she asked. Grace looked at him with confusion and determination.

Danny stared at his daughter and he knew that he wasn't going to get off that easily. He sighed. "Yeah, I love him a lot monkey. That's why it's complicated."

"Why? You two love each other and make each other happy. That doesn't seem complicated to me."

Danny stared at his daughter, too smart for only her eight years. He tucked a stray piece of hair behind Grace's ear.

"How'd you get to be so smart, huh?" he smiled at her.

Grace smiled back at him and continued to talk until she ran out of topics. She snuggled into Danny's side and they watched television. Eventually, Steve wandered back into the room and they watched cartoons and ate bad hospital food until it was time to take Grace home.

Danny and Grace said their goodbyes and Steve hoisted her up onto his hip. Steve looked at Danny.

"I'll be back later and we can talk, okay?"

Danny really didn't want to talk, but the look on Steve's face made him change his mind.

"Yeah, okay. I'll see you soon then."

Danny watched the two people he loved the most in this pineapple infested hell hole walk away. He felt warmth spread through his chest as he watched the interactions between Steve and Grace. Damn, he's really got it bad if he's already thinking of them as their own little ohana.


	15. Chapter 15

Well, I decided to spoil y'all one last time. *\^_^/*

Now we are getting somewhere. ;)

Enjoy!

* * *

Steve helped Grace into the backseat of his truck, which Chin was so kind to drop off for him. He headed over to Rachel's and noticed that Grace was unusually quiet. He looked at her in the rearview mirror.

"What's on your mind, kiddo?"

Grace shrugged her tiny shoulders. "Danno's sad. It makes me sad to see Danno so unhappy."

Steve felt a twinge of pain in his chest at Grace's words, knowing that he was the cause of Danny's sadness.

"I know kiddo. I saw that too. I'm gonna do everything I can to make Danno happy again."

Grace looked up at him and smiled brightly. Just seeing Grace smile like that was enough to ease away some of the heartache. He pulled up to the gate outside the Edwards' home and pressed the buzzer and pulled into the driveway.

Rachel met them on the porch and ushered Grace inside. She turned back to Steve.

"How is he?"

Steve blew out a breath and rubbed the back of his neck.

"He's gonna be fine. He's got bruised ribs, a couple of stab wounds and minor cuts and bruises."

Rachel nodded and said her goodbyes, leaving Steve standing on the porch. Steve shook his head and headed back to his truck.

He pulled into a parking space at the hospital and he was nervous. He was feeling exhausted and burned out from this case. He made his way back to Danny's room and sat back down in the chair he vacated earlier.

He stared down at his hands in his lap, not knowing how to start this conversation.

Danny watched him and he knew Steve was trying to work through something. He's not so sure that he's ready to hear anymore of Steve's bullshit at the moment. He was about to open his mouth before Steve beat him to it.

"Listen, Danny, I'm so incredibly sorry for the way I treated you. And I'm sorry for lying to you. But the one thing that I was completely honest with you about is the fact that I am totally, competently, extensively, unconditionally, undoubtedly, one hundred percent head-over-heels in love with you. I was afraid of how I felt about you. I didn't know how to deal with it, let alone how to express it. And just for the record, Catherine and I are over. I swear Danny, from now on; it will always and only be you that I want."

He took a breath before continuing. "When I saw that bastard stab you today, God Danny, I thought I lost you. I thought that I was never going to see you again and it broke me. I can't imagine my life without you and I'm so sorry Danny that I put you through all that. You getting kidnapped, the pain you're in, the sadness, all of it, it's all my fault." he didn't even care that he had tears falling down his face. He came so close to losing the one good thing in his life and that's just not okay with him.

As Danny listened to Steve, a part of him couldn't help but put it off as another lie. Now, Danny prided himself on being able to read people and his bullshit meter was extremely quiet. He watched Steve slowly breakdown in front of him and it broke his heart. He ignored the pain and moved over, making enough room for Steve to join him. He held out his hand and called out to Steve.

"Babe, come here."

Steve looked up at Danny and saw the outstretched hand. He readily took it and climbed into the bed beside Danny. He curled into Danny's side and rested his head on Danny's shoulder, mumbling.

Danny wrapped his good arm around Steve and stroked the soft hairs at the nape of Steve's neck. He caught bits and pieces of Steve's mumbling and Danny sighed. He tapped the back of Steve's neck to get Steve to look at him and spoke when he had Steve's attention.

"You listen to me. Are you listening? Me getting kidnapped had nothing to do with you. It was not your fault. Like I said before, we couldn't have known that I would be the next target. I don't fit the profile, except for the blond hair/blue eyes part. You need to stop blaming yourself."

Steve sagged against the bed, letting all the tension from the past three days bleed out of his system. He felt the exhaustion settle deep in his bones and sighed against Danny's neck. He felt tears fall from his eyes as the events from earlier that day played through his mind again. He held onto Danny a little bit tighter.

"Almost lost you. 'M so sorry. For everything. I love you so much Danny. I was such an idiot for not telling you sooner. Can you ever forgive me for being so stupid and selfish?"

Danny went back to stroking Steve's hair, trying to calm his frantic partner. Just by looking at Steve, he knew the taller man hadn't slept or eaten in the days that he'd been missing. In simpler terms, Steve looked like hell. Danny turned his head and kissed the top of Steve's head. How could he not forgive the man after all the heartfelt apologies and confessions of love? He kissed Steve's head again and moved his hand from Steve's hair down to stroke over the brunette's back.

"Of course I forgive you. Granted, I'm still pretty angry with you, but I can't keep seeing you so miserable and guilty. And for the record, you aren't going to lose me. Not now, not ever. You're stuck with me Steven J. McGarrett forever. I never stopped believing that you would find me. That's how much I trust and love you. Now, you need to rest. You look like hell babe. I'll still be here when you wake up."

Steve felt an invisible weight being lifted from his chest. He buried his face into Danny's neck and sighed as he closed his eyes. He smiled as he heard Danny's words and chuckled.

"I think I can live with that. And you're no bed of roses either Danno." he closed his eyes, letting his guard down, trusting Danny to keep them safe.

Danny just shook his head and watched Steve drift off to sleep. He looked down at the man lying in his arms. He watched as the hard lines of Steve's face softened and he looked younger in sleep. Danny went back to stroking Steve's hair as the brunette fell into a deeper sleep. He sighed and rested his head atop Steve's, eyes trying to fight the exhaustion. Losing the battle of sleep, Danny's breaths evened out, matching the breaths of his partner.

As Steve slumbered, his mind was on overdrive. His imagination was running wild, providing images of Danny bleeding out in his arms, dying en route to the hospital or dying on the operating table. He jerked himself awake, disoriented and in an unfamiliar place. He finally remembered where he was and his eyes trained on Danny, sound asleep and safe; alive.

His body was screaming at him to get more rest, but he ignored it in favor of watching Danny. He needed that assurance that Danny wasn't going to disappear or die on him. He just got him back and he'll be damned if he's gonna lose him again. He brought his hand up and traced over Danny's facial features. He noticed how all the worry lines disappeared, making the blond look younger. Steve smiled softly as he traced over the bridge of Danny's nose and down over his stubbled jaw. He traced over those soft lips, moving up to card his fingers through all that blond hair.

Danny had awoken as soon as he felt Steve jerk awake, but pretended to sleep to see if Steve was going to fall back asleep. He was startled as Steve began to gently trace over his face. He tried to stay as still as possible, but he couldn't help but lean into the stroking of his hair. He's missed the touch of this man so fucking much that he couldn't deny himself any longer.

Steve knew that Danny was awake and he was just as starved for Danny's touch as he was. He stared into those piercing blue eyes, which he couldn't get enough of, and he could still see the hurt, betrayal, disbelief, and love written in those expressive blue orbs. His heart ached at what he put Danny through. He's so ashamed about the way he treated the one person who gave him love so freely and he took advantage of that and it came back to bite him in the ass.

Looking at this man before him, Steve vowed to never take Danny's love for granted and that he'll talk more. He finally looked away from those eyes, not able to take the pain and anger any longer. He extracted his fingers from Danny's smooth hair. His eye caught the purpling bruise on Danny's left jaw and ran careful fingers over it.

Danny watched Steve through his good eye. He knew his partner was blaming himself again. Danny instantly missed those dangerous fingers, which could be so gentle, in his hair. He hissed as Steve touched the bruise. He wanted to pull away, but he didn't want to send the wrong message to his already fragile partner. He kept his eye trained on Steve as the man picked up his bruised right hand and kissed over his knuckles.

Steve followed the bruise all the way up to Danny's swollen eye before abandoning it. He kissed over the bruised knuckles and continued to hold Danny's right hand. He leaned forward and placed gentle kisses over the dark purple on Danny's skin. He's given his apologies with his words, now he'll show them with his actions.

He gently tugged the hospital gown down Danny's shoulders, exposing the white bandage and the few shallow cuts that were still an angry red. He kissed down Danny's neck and collar bones, making his way over to the bandage, kissing it gently. Steve repeated this process over every injury that he could reach. Each kiss was a silent apology and a promise. He raised his head and gave his lover the most passionate kiss he could muster, before pulling back and stared into Danny's eyes.

Danny closed his eyes and just let Steve do what he wanted. His breath hitched when he fully understood what it was that Steve was actually doing. He knew that Steve was a man of action; he showed that through work, and little words. It made his heart swell that this fierce, strong, insane, passionate man could turn into this gentle, caring, vulnerable lover.

Danny would treasure this moment forever. This vulnerable side of Steve was a gift that Danny will keep with him. He opened his eyes in time to see Steve leaning in, kissing him so fiercely and passionately. He opened his eyes when Steve pulled back and saw the fresh tear tracks running down Steve's cheeks. He brought his hands up, framing Steve's face, and wiped away the tears with his thumbs. He pulled the taller man back into a kiss, slower and gentler this time. He pulled away and smiled.

"Hey, everything is gonna be okay. I'm right here, not going anywhere. I'm safe now. I'm alive. You rescued me babe. My knight in black cargo pants."

That pulled a laugh out of them both and Steve leaned into Danny's touch. He was reminded of the state of Danny's apartment.

"I gotta ask, did you destroy your apartment or was it from the attack?"

Danny kept his soothing strokes up, knowing Steve wasn't going to like his answer.

"I did. Believe it or not, it was a song on the radio that triggered it. Oh, and we need to talk about your music preferences. Country? Really Steven?"

Steve looked away sheepishly and then back up at Danny through his lashes, knowing how that got to Danny.

"What? I like country music. It speaks to me."

"'It speaks to me' he says. Well, you can play it all you want in your truck and keep it out of _my _car, alright. Only the classics are allowed in my car."

"Oh really? And what, pray tell, is considered 'classic'?"

"Bon Jovi, Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, ya know, classics."

Steve rolled his eyes and chuckled. He gave Danny a quick peck on the lips and then straightened up the hospital gown.

"Whatever you say Danno."

Steve laid his head back down on Danny's shoulder, feeling sleep trying to claim him yet again.

Danny gathered Steve as close as his battered body would allow and stroked through his lover's short hair.

"Sleep babe. I'll still be right here, I promise."

Steve sighed and closed his eyes, seeking out and holding Danny's hand in his own. He fell asleep to the whispered assurances in his hair and slept soundly.

Danny stayed awake a little longer; making sure that Steve didn't have any more nightmares. He only fell asleep when he was absolutely positive that Steve was sound asleep and dreaming about happy things.


	16. Chapter 16

Steve was finally able to take Danny home after a few days in the hospital. Steve never left Danny's side, much to the chagrin of the hospital staff. Steve didn't care. He wouldn't be letting Danny out of his sight anytime soon. He walked beside the nurse as she wheeled Danny to the front entrance.

Danny sat in the wheelchair pouting (which he will deny until his dying breath).

"I just don't see why I can't walk. I'm not an invalid for heaven's sake."

Steve chuckled and the nurse shook her head.

"It's hospital policy Mr. Williams. I'm just doing my job."

Danny grumbled and slouched down in the chair, which he regretted immediately. He hissed as the position put a strain on his still healing ribs. He tried to right himself, but it just hurt worse.

Steve caught the movement and shook his head. He placed his hand on Danny's shoulder.

"I'll give you your pain meds when we get home, okay?"

Danny nodded and didn't even protest when Steve helped him into the truck. He leaned back into the seat, trying to ease the ache on his screaming ribs. He closed his eyes and tried to get a little rest.

Steve drove them back to his place and got Danny settled into his bed. He left to get Danny his pain meds. He handed Danny the glass and the pills and sat beside him on the bed.

He hasn't stopped touching Danny since he rescued him, still needing that assurance that this was real. He barely let Danny out of his sight, only when Danny got fed up and yelled at him to give Danny a few minutes of privacy. He obliged, but he went out of his mind with worry and hovered nearby.

Steve carded his fingers through Danny's hair, knowing that it calmed the blond down. He looked at Danny and he wanted to curl around the man, but was unsure if Danny would let him. Danny was still angry and Steve could understand that. Hell, he's angry with himself for what he did to Danny and Catherine, but especially Danny.

Danny set his glass down on the nightstand and just watched Steve. He let Steve do the whole 'touch and watchful eye' routine for a bit until he finally had enough. He made Steve leave the room so he could have a few moments to himself. It worked for a little while, but then he knew Steve was hovering and worrying himself to death, so he let Steve back into the bedroom.

Danny saw Steve's hesitancy, but he leaned into Steve's touch anyway. They needed to talk and Steve had made his petitions known. Now it was his turn. He gently turned over so he could see Steve's face. He grabbed Steve's hand from his hair and held it in both of his.

"You said your peace, now it's my turn."

Steve's heart rate kicked up a few notches. He didn't know if this was going to be good or bad. The fear of losing Danny gripped at his heart and he's sure that it showed on his face because now Danny was looking at him with a fond 'you idiot' expression.

As Danny held Steve's hand, he felt Steve's pulse increase. He watched Steve's expression go from worried to scared shitless in .02 seconds. He shook his head and smiled fondly at him.

"Calm down ya goof." he waited until Steve was calm before continuing. "Now I want you to listen to me very carefully because I'm only going to say this once."

Danny took a deep breath and looked Steve in the eye. "What you did to me, it hurt Steven. And I'm not talking about I-fell-down-and-scraped-my-knees kind of hurt either. I'm talking about rip-my-heart-out-and-toss-it-into-a-blender-press- puree-then-stomp-on-it-til-its-mush kind of hurt. I gave you everything and you played me like a harp. And I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. You made me feel like a fool and then flaunting your relationship with Catherine in front of me, that was a low blow. You may not have thought it was no big deal, but what I saw, what I saw was a woman who had everything."

He paused to keep his emotions in check and held his hand up to tell Steve he wasn't finished.

"The look in Catherine's eyes was vindictive and triumphant. That look told me that she knew that she had what I wanted and she wasn't going to relinquish you anytime soon. After the two of you left, I lost it. I destroyed my office and my apartment. I felt like my whole world fell apart when you walked out that door."

Steve listened as Danny told him about the day he was kidnapped. He had no idea that Danny felt that way. This only reminded him again at how badly he'd fucked up. He closed his eyes, not able to see the pain still in those baby blues that he put there.

Danny knew what his partner was thinking before he could voice it. He cupped Steve's cheek, forcing Steve to open his eyes.

"That's enough. I'm tired of you blaming yourself for this. It was not your fault."

"Yes it was Danny. If I had only told you the truth and not lied to you and ended it with Cath, we wouldn't be in this mess. God Danny, I practically forced you into that psycho's path."

"You listen here Steven, yes we had a disagreement. Yes, I'm angry as all hell with you. But that does not mean that this was your fault or mine. He could've chosen anyone. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. That's it. After you told me everything, a part of me felt as if you were bullshitting me. But after watching your reactions, I knew you were telling the truth. And just for the record, I'm also totally, competently, extensively, unconditionally, undoubtedly, one hundred percent head-over-heels in love with you too, you Neanderthal animal."

The smile that spread across Steve's face, could rival any sunrise. It warmed Danny's heart to know that he put that look on Steve's face. Danny always thought to himself that that was Steve's smile for him and him alone. He tugged on Steve's hand so he was lying down next to him.

Steve went willingly and wrapped his arms around Danny, fitting his leg in between Danny's thighs so there was hardly any space between them. He's missed this closeness, this intimacy. He never had that with Catherine and he's really glad they didn't. He cupped Danny's cheek and stroked his jaw.

"I am so, so sorry I hurt you Danno. That was never my intention, I swear. I was afraid. I was being an idiot, an asshole, and selfish. I didn't know how to deal with my feelings for you, nor did I know how to tell you, so I stayed with Catherine. I'm angry at myself for waiting until it was almost too late."

Danny settled into Steve's embrace and listened to his words. He knew how hard it was for Steve to talk about his feelings, but when he did, Danny stopped and listened. He felt his anger and hurt lessen as Steve apologized again for the millionth time.

He took a page from Steve's book and showed Steve with his actions instead of words. He closed the small gap between them, covering Steve's lips with his own. He framed Steve's face with both hands and angled Steve's head so he could deepen the kiss. He pulled back, panting and smiling.

"Stop apologizing. I know how sorry you are babe, and I've already forgiven you. So how bout you put that mouth of yours to other uses, hm?"

Steve smirked. "I think I can do that."


	17. Chapter 17

After four weeks of recovery, Danny was ready to get back to work. Don't get him wrong, he loved getting to spend extra time with his daughter and rebuilding his relationship with Steve, but he's going crazy. He needed to get back out there to make this god forsaken island safe for his baby girl.

Of course, Steve was against the idea and wanted Danny to stay home a few extra days.

"I just don't see why you won't stay home a few more days. You should rest a little more. Are you sure you're up for this?"

Danny was buttoning up his shirt and turned around so he could face Steve. He began to put on his tie as he spoke.

"Yes, Steven, I'm sure. I love you and all but you're starting to drive me crazy with your constant motherhenning. I need to get back out there." he walked over to Steve and kissed him.

He pulled back and smiled. He will admit though, these past four weeks have been wonderful. He and Steve are better than ever and he couldn't be happier. He loved that he could call Steve his boyfriend and watch as said man smiled brightly with a faint blush staining his cheeks.

Steve smiled into the kiss. He placed his hands on Danny's hips and pulled him forward. He kissed Danny again, deeper this time. He was the first to pull back, panting. He stared at Danny, eyes wide and pupils lust blown.

"Fine, but how bout we take just one more day? Please Danno?" he gave his best puppy dog eyes and he even threw in a pout.

Danny shook his head and chuckled at his lover. "You are something else, you know that?"

He leaned back in and kissed Steve for all he was worth. He pushed Steve back onto the bed and straddled his thighs, all without breaking the kiss. He threaded his fingers into Steve's wavy locks and tugged, angling his head to deepen the kiss.

Steve grabbed onto Danny's hips and thrusted his own up, grinding his cock into Danny's He moaned as Danny tugged on his hair. He took control of the kiss, turning it dirty, and slipped his hands up and under Danny's shirt. He skimmed his fingers up Danny's back and then back down to the waistband of Danny's dress pants.

Danny began to kiss over Steve's jaw and nibbled at the sensitive skin behind his lover's ear. He licked over the shell of Steve's ear, biting at the lobe before whispering in the taller man's ear.

"This has been fun babe, but now we gotta go to work."

With one last kiss to Steve's lips, he crawled off the bed and began to tuck his shirt in. He grabbed his holster and badge and placed them in their normal spot on his hip.

Steve watched Danny as he finished getting dressed with a scowl on his face. He stood from the bed and adjusted the front of his pants, all the while staring at Danny. 'All in due time, Daniel' he thought to himself. He will exact his revenge for this.

Danny threw his head back as he let out a boisterous laugh. He patted Steve's chest as he walked by and downstairs to get a cup of his precious coffee. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could get Steve to stop for malasadas on the way to the office.

Steve grabbed his own gun and badge and hooking them to the waistband of his ever-present cargoes. He also loaded up on extra weapons, in places where no one would ever find them. He grumbled all the way down the stairs and to the kitchen to make himself a healthy breakfast.

Danny leaned against the counter, ankles crossed in front of him, sipping his coffee as he watched his pissy partner. He hid his smile behind his mug as he took another drink. Danny finished his coffee and a diabolic plan formed in his head. It was definitely going to get him into trouble later, but he was counting on it.

Steve breezed through his breakfast and grabbed his phone and the keys to the Camaro, which Kono drove over while Danny was still in the hospital, and headed out.

Danny dropped into the passenger seat, putting on his belt, and looked over at Steve.

"Hey babe, could you stop and get me some malasadas? Or maybe coco puffs?"

Steve looked at his partner before rolling his eyes and started the car. Not one to deny Danny anything, he stopped at Liliha Bakery and got Danny his coveted coco puffs. He was silent, and still a bit horny, all the rest of the way to the office.

Danny let out a, very manly mind you, gleeful sound and tucked into this very addicting pastry. He made all these obscene noises and watched Steve out of the corner of his eye as he squinted in his seat. Danny was having a hard time hiding his smirk, so he popped another coco puff in his mouth.

The sounds coming from the seat next to him were not helping to get rid of his aching hard-on. He pulled into HQ even grumpier than he was this morning. He stepped out of the car and tried to discreetly adjust himself. He stormed into the main office and headed for his own.

Danny followed a few steps behind, getting odd looks from Chin and Kono. He only smirked and waggled his eyebrows as he placed the box of coco puffs in front of the cousins before heading to his own office.

Chin looked over at Kono with an I-don't-want-to-know expression as both of them burst out into laughter. The both of them dug into the coco puffs as they finished the diagnostics on the tech table.

Danny managed to clean up his office from his outburst a few weeks ago. Now he was sitting comfortably behind his desk, phone in hand. Even with his goofy thumbs, he managed to send Steve a dirty text and waited for Steve's reaction.

Steve was working on reports when his phone beeped, alerting him that he had a text. He saw that it was from Danny and opened it. When he read it, his eyes grew wide. He read over it one more time.

'_Do you know what I'm thinking about right now? I'm thinking about you going down on me and taking me as far down your throat as you can stand. And once you've got me on the edge, I want you to take that talented tongue of yours and rim the hell outta my ass. Just thinking about it, is making me so hard. I bet you're still hard from this morning. Tell you what, when we get home, I'll let you do all those things to me and so much more babe.'_

Steve continued to stare at the message on the screen and the tight pull of his cargoes made sitting in his chair uncomfortable. He looked up when he felt Danny's eyes on him. He glared at the blond when he saw the smug look on his face. Steve was about to retaliate when his phone began to ring.

He saw the Governor's name and all dirty thoughts flew out the window. He answered his phone and stood up, heading towards the bullpen.

Danny was watching Steve, smug look firmly in place. He became serious when the look on Steve's face went from completely aroused to all business in .02 seconds; he knew something was going down. He promptly exited his office and joined the rest of the team gathered at the tech table.

"Yes ma'am. We'll get right on it." he hung up his phone before addressing his team. "That was the governor and she has a high priority case for us to handle quickly and quietly. Chin, find out everything you can on Thomas Jacobson. His two kids were discovered missing when they didn't come home from school two days ago. Kono, you stay and help him. Danny and I are going to talk to Thomas."

Danny was right on Steve's heels as they left the office and headed for the Camaro. He was taken completely by surprise when Steve shoved him into a supply closet.

"Steven, what the—"

Danny didn't get to finish his sentence due to his mouth being invaded by Steve's tongue. He started to relax into the kiss and rested his hands on Steve's hips and brought them closer together.

Steve indulged Danny for a few minutes before he abruptly pulled away, smug smirk on his face. He ghosted his lips along Danny's jaw and over to his ear.

"This has been fun babe, but now we gotta go to work."

Danny glared at the man before him. He had his own tactics used against him. He readjusted himself as he followed his smug bastard of a boyfriend out to the car. Needless to say, he gave Steve the silent treatment all the way to the victim's house.

Steve and Danny arrived at the Jacobson home a few minutes later. Danny knocked on the door, settling into detective mode and put his personal issues aside. The both of them were ushered inside and led to Thomas Jacobson's office.

Thomas Jacobson was on his phone when he saw the two officers enter his office. He motioned for them to have a seat as he finished up his business call. Thomas pocketed his cell phone and turned to the officers. He came around his desk.

"Officers. Thomas Jacobson."

Both Steve and Danny shook his hand and introduced themselves.

"Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett."

"Detective Danny Williams. Can you tell us what happened?"

Thomas perched himself on the edge of his desk, feet crossed at the ankles, and folded his arms over his chest.

"Two days ago, I was at Governor Jameson's house, catching up. My kids were at school and they were going to go over to their friends' house. They never showed. When I got the call, it felt like my heart stopped."

Danny felt for the guy as he told his story. More often than not, he found himself thinking about what would happen if Gracie were taken. His mind conjured up so many scenarios and the many ways they could go wrong.

Steve would glance over at Danny now and then. He noticed that the more Thomas spoke, the paler Danny's face got. Then it dawned on him. He was thinking about Grace and what would happen if Danny were in this situation.

Steve turned his attention back to Thomas and caught the last bit of his story.

"Early this morning, I received a phone call." he pulled out a small voice recorder from his desk drawer and pressed play.

'_Thomas Jacobson, I have your children. This is my one and only demand so listen very carefully. If you do not comply with this demand, you will never see your children again. I want ten million dollars by the end of the week. And Mr. Jacobson, failure to comply will result in the termination of your children. You'll hear from me again in two days' time."_

As Danny listened to the recording, the angrier he became. He stamped down on that anger and looked into Thomas' eyes. "How old are your children, Mr. Jacobson?"

Thomas was pulled from his thoughts by Danny's question.

"Oh, uh, Cara is fifteen and Toby is thirteen. Please, bring my kids back to me. They're all I have since their mother passed."

Steve stood and placed his hand on Thomas' shoulder.

"Mr. Jacobson, I can't make any promises but I can assure you that my team and I will do everything in our power to find who did this. Could we possibly have that recording?"

Thomas nodded. "Oh yes of course. Take whatever you need. Thank you so much detectives. I appreciate everything you're doing for my family. If you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to."

Danny stood from his chair and shook Thomas' hand and turned to head for the door. Steve lingered behind to collect the tape.

"Of course. Thank you for your time Mr. Jacobson. We'll be in touch." he shook Thomas' hand and found Danny outside, perched on the Camaro.

They climbed into the car and Steve drove them back to HQ. Steve kept looking over at Danny the whole drive and knew this case was hitting Danny hard. He reached over and grabbed Danny's hand, entwining their fingers.

"Hey. We'll figure this out. I want to find these kids just as much as you do and I know this is hard for you, but I need to know where your head's at."

Danny squeezed Steve's hand and looked at him. "I know we will. It's always hard when kids are involved and yeah, I'm always going to think about my baby girl. My head is on this case and finding those kids as quickly as possible."

The car was filled with a comfortable silence as both men were lost in their thoughts as Steve continued the drive to HQ.


	18. Chapter 18

When Steve and Danny stepped foot inside HQ, they are called to the tech table by Chin.

"Hey Chin, what do you got?" Steve asked as he leaned forward on his hands, looking up at the screens.

Danny assumed a similar position as he watched Chin pull up many different kinds of documents.

"Thomas Jacobson, 36, owner of many factories and warehouses in Hawaii and the mainland. He recently became a single father two years ago after his wife died of ovarian cancer. After his wife passed, he started to work more from home so he could take care of his kids."

Chin typed in a few things and swiped some more documents up on the screen.

"About ten months ago, Jacobson shut down one of the factories here, causing hundreds of people to lose their jobs. Luckily, all of them got jobs at Jacobson's other factories except for one." A few more pushes of the buttons and a picture popped up on-screen. "Meet Jack Kingston, 31. He and his family moved here three years ago when the company he worked for in California transferred him here. And that company was co-owned by Jacobson."

Steve straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest. "And you think he could be behind this?"

"He's a good fit. After the factory shut down, he was having trouble finding work, bills started to pile up; they lost their house and had to live out of their car. He started drinking and then his wife had enough. She packed up their two kids and moved in with her parents in California."

Danny felt his heart go out to the guy but that doesn't give him a free pass if this Jack guy actually kidnapped those kids. The more he heard about this case, the more convinced he was that Jack Kingston was their guy. He crossed his arms over his chest and rubbed at his forehead with one hand. He could feel a headache coming on and excused himself to his office.

Steve watched him curiously and handed Chin the voice recorder. He asked him if he could do voice recognition and isolate any kind of sounds that could lead them to Jack and the kids. He followed Danny into his office and perched himself on the edge of Danny's desk, arms folded and ankles crossed.

Danny sat, slumped in his chair, hands resting on his chest; fingers interlaced. They've just started this case and he already hated it. They were working on borrowed time. They only had a day, at best, to find this Jack guy, question him, and find those kids. He was so deep in thought that he didn't see Steve enter his office. So, Danny about fell out of his chair when he finally noticed Steve.

"Fuck! Dammit Steven! Would you please stop using your 'Super SEAL Ninja powers' for evil and trying to give me a heart attack? Huh? Could you do that for me, please? I would like to see my daughter grow up and—this isn't funny Steven! Stop laughing you animal!"

Steve tried to hold in his laughter, really he did, but Danny looked so frazzled; trying to right himself as his hands flew about, mouth going a hundred miles an hour. Steve's boisterous laughter filled Danny's entire office and drowned out whatever else Danny was yelling at him about.

After about five minutes of ranting and raving about having the common courtesy to make at least some semblance of noise to alert the other person, Danny stopped and just stared at Steve. He'll never get tired of hearing that laugh and seeing those laugh lines crinkle around the corners of Steve's eyes. It was always better to see that genuine happiness on his partner's face instead of 'aneurysm face' or 'constipated face'. Yeah, this was a good look on him and Danny couldn't help but smile back.

Steve finally got his laughter under control and noticed that Danny had stopped talking. He looked down at Danny and saw the smiled on his face, returning a smile of his own.

"What?"

Danny shook his head, smile still on his face. "Nothing babe. It's just that I like it when you smile. It looks good on you."

Steve bowed his head, shy smile gracing his face this time. He looked back over at Danny and reached out and traced over Danny's own smile.

"It looks good on you too, Danno. I love it when you smile." he couldn't help but trace over the crinkles at the corners of Danny's eyes.

He moved his hand down and cupped Danny's stubbled jaw. His own smile softened as he stroked Danny's cheekbone.

"I know what you're thinking so stop. We're gonna find those kids and we're gonna get this guy. I know you hate these cases where kids are involved, but everything turns out alright in the end."

Danny leaned into Steve's touch and looked up at Steve. Seeing love and fondness mixed with concern in those gorgeous blue eyes. He sighed.

"But what happens if we can't find them or this Jack guy isn't our man? What if these kids die because we have the wrong guy, huh? I can't tell Jacobson that we got his kids killed because we didn't have all our ducks in a row. I just can't. Not after what he's already been through."

Steve continued his soothing strokes as Danny ranted. He knew the underlying fear that Danny had about cases like this and he knew the kind of havoc it was wreaking in Danny's mind. He brought his other hand up to the other side of Danny's face, forcing Danny's head up so he could look into those gorgeous baby blues.

"Hey, I have a gut feeling that we have the right guy and that we'll find these kids. You keep thinking too much about this case and it's gonna get you into trouble. How bout we take a break from this case for a couple of hours? I'm sure Chin and Kono are going to be a while with that tape and they'll call if anything changes. What do you say?"

Danny sighed and closed his eyes before nodding he consent. "Yeah, okay, yeah. You're right. I could use a break. Could we go home and just lie down for a while?"

Steve smiled softly at his lover and continued stroking over Danny's cheeks. "Sure thing babe. Whatever you need, I'm happy to oblige."

Steve told Chin and Kono that once they finished with the recording, they could head out. They could pick up where they left off in the morning. Steve and Danny left the office and piled into the Camaro, Steve driving them home.

He smiled when he realized what he just thought and then back earlier at the office at what Danny said. He doesn't remember when it happened; it was just natural to think of Danny as a permanent person in his house. He knew it sounded cheesy, even in his own head, but Danny brought light whereas Steve could only see darkness.

Steve didn't realize that he had been drowning in a sea of, well; everything that life had thrown his way. He thought about how Danny was like a lighthouse, but he was so far in the darkness, he just couldn't see the light that Danny was shining.

It all became clear the day he almost lost Danny. He finally saw the pure, bright light that was his partner that he was finally able to swim toward it. He was so deep in thought that he didn't hear Danny calling him.

"Steve. Steve. Hello, earth to Steven!"

Steve shook himself out of his thoughts and looked over at Danny.

"Yeah?"

"You gonna drive anytime soon? The light's been green for five minutes babe."

Steve cleared his throat, embarrassed that he let himself drift so far from reality. He put his foot on the gas pedal and drove the rest of the way home.

Danny turned slightly in his seat to look at Steve, wondering what could've dragged Steve so far into his head. As he looked closer, he saw a look on Steve's face that he's never seen before and hadn't been able to catalogue and name yet.

The longer Danny watched his partner, the more he started to realize that Steve looked happy and content. That made Danny smile. He could tell something was different about Steve. Over the past few weeks, he noticed subtle changes about his partner. He had an inkling that it all started after his kidnapping. He noticed how Steve would stop and listen and Steve talked to him more. His kidnapping took a bigger toll on Steve than it did himself. Don't get him wrong, he liked these new changes, but he was sort of used to the 'old Steve'.

During his recovery, Danny received many phone calls from Chin and Kono about Steve and how weird he was acting. That got red flags waving and alarms blaring in his head. They would tell him that he was actually waiting for backup and doing more than his share of the paperwork and would tell Danny to get better soon so he could 'fix' Steve. That floored him when he heard about that. He's not really sure how to react to this new predicament. As much as he ranted and raved at Steve about proper police procedure, he was used to the way that Steve would jump in guns a blazing; not waiting for backup. That was how they worked. Steve did something stupid, Danny yelled at him. That was their dynamic. He frowned at this the longer he thought about it.

Steve looked over at Danny, frown marring that beautiful face. They weren't far from home and Steve reached out for Danny's hand and gave it a small squeeze.

"What's on your mind, D?"

Danny focused on Steve and shook his head.

"It's nothing babe. Just thinking about some stuff."

"Anything you want to share with the class?"

Danny fidgeted in his seat and sighed, running his free hand through his hair.

"Please don't take this the wrong way, but I've heard some things about how you're not being yourself as of late. And, I don't know, but that bothers me. I mean, it's great that you've finally decided to listen to me, but why the sudden change in character? After hearing all these accounts, I kinda miss the way things were before. It works for us that way and I don't want it to feel off-balance when the occasion arises."

Steve pulled into the driveway and shut off the car before turning to look at Danny. He really didn't know what to say to that. He never really noticed the way he'd been acting. Then again, he was sort of oblivious to these kinds of things.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I hadn't really noticed. I guess I've been distracted lately."

Danny looked at Steve incredulously. "What could have my Super SEAL so distracted, hm?"

Steve looked up at Danny, letting everything he's feeling show in his eyes. The fear, the anxiety, the constant nightmares and worry he's had ever since Danny got kidnapped, shone in his eyes.

Danny stared at Steve for a few minutes, reading the expressions swimming in Steve's blue-green eyes. His entire face softened as he reached out to Steve. He cupped his partner's right cheek.

"Oh babe. Come on, let's head inside." he stroked his thumb over Steve's stubbled jaw. He grabbed the keys from the ignition and headed for the house. Danny opened the front door and punched in the code on the alarm. He reset it once Steve entered behind him.

Danny dropped his keys on the table by the door and toed off his shoes before turning around to Steve. He watched as Steve bent down and unlaced his boots and removed his socks. Danny removed his own socks and led Steve upstairs to their bedroom.

On his way up, Danny removed his tie and tossed it to the floor. He even contemplated foregoing all ties, which was crazy thinking, but he would do anything for this man. He unbuttoned the first couple of buttons and opened their bedroom door and closed it once they both were inside.

Steve followed Danny up to their bedroom and watched the tie come off half way upstairs and smiled. To be honest, he liked the way Danny looked without the tie. Steve wrapped his arms around Danny and placed a sweet kiss to his lips.

"Look, I know that you getting kidnapped happened weeks ago, and I guess it kinda shook me to the core a bit. I came so close to losing you D and that turned my world upside down. I know we haven't known each other for very long, but dammit Danny I just can't imagine my life without you in it."

Steve rested his forehead against Danny's and closed his eyes. He moved his hands and held Danny's hips, thumbs stroking over the fabric covered hipbones. He sighed before opening his eyes to look into Danny's.

"Can't believe I'm going to say this out loud, but I need you Danny. In more ways then you'll ever know. That's why I do all the crazy shit that I do because I can't lose you nor am I ready to face Grace to tell her that her Danno is gone."

Danny held onto Steve as he spilled his guts. He smiled softly at these turn of events. Just earlier, Steve was comforting and reassuring him and here he was, doing the same to Steve. Danny's not blind. He's seen how bad his kidnapping had affected Steve. As much as Steve tried to hide it, Danny knew because he knew Steve.

He lifted his head and nudged his nose along Steve's jaw.

"I think I have some idea babe. C'mon, let's just go lie down, okay?" he led Steve to the bed and gently nudged his partner down to the mattress. He followed and positioned himself so that he and Steve were sharing the same pillow.

Steve knew that he needed to get over this because this was the job. Shit like this was bound to happen. He's lost plenty of buddies on missions and yeah, it hurt but this was different. This was more a life changing kind of hurt that he's just not ready to go through again after just losing his father.

He was barely holding it together then and if he lost Danny, god, there's no telling what would happen to him. So he stared at the man in front of him, committing to memory everything he could about Danny.

Danny watched Steve and just stroked over his cheek, letting him work through whatever was going on in that goofy head and silently letting Steve know that he's there and not going anywhere anytime soon.

"Get some sleep babe. We'll talk more later, okay?"

Steve nodded sleepily and scooted closer to Danny, wrapping his long limbs around his lover's smaller frame and holding on like an octopus.

Danny smiled and rolled his eyes fondly at Steve. "Goof. Night babe."

Steve closed his eyes and buried his face in Danny's soft blond locks. "Night Danno."

Danny listened to Steve's breaths even out and let out a sigh of contentment before following Steve into dreamland.


	19. Chapter 19

The next morning, Steve awoke before the sun decided to grace the rest of the world with its presence. He smiled at the sleeping man next to him and placed a chaste kiss to Danny's forehead. He carefully extracted himself from the bed and put on his swim trunks before heading downstairs.

He stopped in the kitchen to get the coffee maker going and then headed out to the beach for his morning swim. He let the repetitive motion of his arms and the coolness of the ocean wash over him and clear his head. He swam until he felt a pleasant ache in his muscles.

He swam back to shore and dried himself off before he headed back into the house. Steve stopped in the kitchen and poured himself and Danny a cup of coffee before he went upstairs. Steve crept silently into the bedroom and smiled when he noticed Danny sprawled out on the bed.

Steve set the cups down on the bedside table and crawled on top of Danny and began kissing over that gorgeous neck. He noticed that sometime during the night, Danny must've stripped down to his boxers. Steve smirked as he trailed kisses down that glorious, muscular back, digging his fingers into all that muscle.

Danny began to wake up as the scent of coffee and salt water assaulted his nose. He felt the solid weight of Steve on his back and open-mouthed kisses to his neck and back. _'Someone's in a good mood this morning' _he thought to himself. He felt himself start to respond to Steve's ministrations and moaned out his approval. He melted into the mattress as Steve began to massage his back. He immediately felt the tension from yesterday bleed out of his system at Steve's talented hands.

Steve straddled Danny and responded in kind to Danny's encouragements. He kneaded the heel of his hands into Danny's shoulders, feeling most of the tension there. He smiled when Danny became pliant under his hands and kept working the tension out of the blond firecracker's body.

He sat up enough and motioned for Danny to turn over and smiled brightly when he saw those baby blues. He settled himself back down on top of Danny, kissing him lazily. He pulled away after giving one last kiss to those very addicting lips.

"Morning. I brought you some coffee."

Danny smiled and sat up, leaning back on the headboard.

"Oh did you now?"

Steve nodded as he repositioned himself on Danny's lap and grabbed both of their cups. He handed Danny his cup before taking a drink from his own.

Danny took a sip of his coffee and closed his eyes at the wonderful taste. He was convinced that Steve kept the good stuff at his place and used the crappy stuff at the office. He's gonna have to keep a secret stash for himself at the office if they want him to function. He opened his eyes and saw Steve smiling at him.

"What's got you all chipper this morning? Not that I'm complaining…just curious."

Steve put his cup back on the nightstand and did the same to Danny's before taking Danny's hands into his own, entwining their fingers.

"I've done some thinking—"

"That's never good."

"—and I wanted to ask you a very important question. And I really want you to think about it. Will you move in with me?"

Danny was flabbergasted and relieved that Steve was giving him time to think about it. In his heart of hearts, he knew he was going to say yes anyway because of how much he loved this man before him. It's a no brainer answer and he smiled at Steve.

"I don't need to think about it. My answer is yes, ya goof." he pulled Steve forward and drew him into a slow, leisurely kiss.

Steve smiled into the kiss, feeling relieved that he'll have Danny with him forever. He had so many things running through his mind that he wanted to do to the house. He already knew Danny would be happy here, but he wanted to give Grace her own space for when Danny had her on the weekends.

Danny pulled back and ran his fingers through Steve's still damp hair and smiled at him.

"What are you thinking about Super SEAL?"

Steve felt a blush creep up on his cheeks. "Just thinking about turning Mary's old room into Grace's room for when you have her. She can pick out her own furniture and paint. I want her to feel at home here as much as you do."

Danny brushed his thumbs over Steve's cheeks and smiled. "You are something else, you know that? Thank you. You don't have to do that."

"I want to. She deserves to have her own space and not feel like she's intruding. This is as much her home as it is yours."

Before either of them could say anything more, Steve's phone began to ring. Steve grabbed it off the bedside table and answered it.

"McGarrett."

"Hey boss. I think we may have a positive ID on our mystery guy on the recording. You may want to get down here." Chin said.

"Copy that. We're on our way." he hung up and threw his phone on the bed.

"We get a break in the case?"

"Yeah. C'mon we gotta get going." he kissed Danny before getting off the bed and headed for the bathroom to shower.

Danny swung his legs over the side of the bed and finished off his coffee. He headed toward the bathroom and slid in the shower behind Steve.

"Don't get any ideas McGarrett. We don't have time for it. Maybe at a later time."

Steve pouted but stepped aside and let Danny have a turn under the spray. He quickly shampooed and washed his body and stepped back under the spray when Danny moved back. He stepped out of the shower and finished his morning routine.

"Move your ass Danno! We don't have all day for you to lollygag in the shower."

"Bite me McGarrett!"

"Don't tempt me."

"Fuck you!"

"Maybe another time. Get a move on it Williams!" he shouted as he left the bathroom.

A string of images flew through Danny's head at Steve's last statement, which in turn made all the blood in his body rush south to his cock. "Bastard," he muttered to himself as he finished his shower and morning routine. By the time Danny got to the bedroom, Steve had finished putting on his shirt.

Steve grabbed their cups and headed for the door but kissed Danny first. "Five minutes babe."

Danny grumbled as Steve left the bedroom. He quickly dressed and decided to surprise Steve by foregoing his ever-present tie. He grabbed his gun and badge and headed down stairs. He put on his shoes before he and Steve headed out to the Camaro.

Steve did a double take and paused in his steps, face screwed up in amusement. "You're not wearing a tie. I like it. Suits you."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Just get in the car and let's get going before we're late."

Steve laughed before climbing behind the wheel and driving in the direction of HQ.


	20. Chapter 20

Steve sauntered through the doors of HQ and straight over to Chin and Kono at the tech table.

"Chin, what have you got?" he asked as he leant forward on his hands.

"After you guys left, I did some digging around and I found this." he tapped a few buttons and brought up traffic camera footage in front of the Jacobson kids' school.

Danny stood; arms folded across his chest, and watched the video with a critical eye.

"Whoa, whoa. Take that back a bit." he waited for Chin to comply. "Right there. Pause it. Is that our suspected guy with the kids?"

Chin enhanced the video and cleared up the picture. "This is Jack Kingston. The camera caught him driving off in a white van, but the video was too distorted for me to get a plate number and make and model of the van."

Steve stood from the table and mirrored Danny's stance.

"Did you get anything off the recording?"

Kono stepped up and brought up the recording.

"I had Fong see if he could get any distinguishing background sounds off it, nothing identifying. The only thing we could get off it was confirmation that this is Jack Kingston and the faint sound of ocean waves."

Steve nodded. "Alright. Good work. Chin put an APB out on Kingston. I want this guy found immediately. We don't have much time left to get these kids found. Kono, I want you to take that video and see if you can get anything off that van. Danny, you stay with her and use those sharp eyes of your."

He walked over to his office and pulled out his phone as it began to ring.

"McGarrett."

"Commander, thank goodness. This is Thomas Jacobson. I'm calling to inform you that I have received an email from the kidnapper. I didn't open it. I figured you would want to be here."

Steve turned around and left his office. "Alright. Thank you Mr. Jacobson. My team and I are on the way." he hung up and motioned to the door. "Change of plans. I just got a call from Jacobson. Our guy sent him an email and he wanted us there before he opened it. Let's move."

They scrambled out of the office and down to the parking lot and to their respective vehicles. Steve peeled out of the parking lot, Chin and Kono following close behind. A few minutes later, they pulled up outside the Jacobson's house and were immediately ushered inside and led to Jacobson's study. Chin and Kono introduce themselves and they get down to business.

Jacobson pulled up his email account and opened the one that came in early that morning. "When I checked my email this morning, I clicked on this one and found a link to a video inside and just figured I should call you first."

Steve and the team gathered around the laptop. "You did the right thing. Go ahead and play the video. Keep your eyes open for any clues and ears open for any distinguishing sounds."

The video began, out of focus before focusing on two scared teenagers, bound and gagged in chairs in the middle of the room. Thomas gave a loud gasp when he saw his children. Danny winced when he saw the kids but kept his focus on the surroundings, trying to find anything significant. Steve stood behind Jacobson, arms folded, and laser-focused on the computer screen.

'_Thomas Jacobson, this is your proof of life. You have less than twenty-four hours to comply with my demands or you'll never see your kids ever again.'_

_All of them saw movement and then Jack Kingston stood behind Cara and removed her gag._

'_Anything you want to say to your daddy?'_

_Cara swallowed around the lump in her throat as tears fell down her face._

'_Daddy I love you so much. Please, find us.'_

_Jack replaced the gag in her mouth and moved to Toby and did the same._

_Toby looked straight at the camera and spoke as soon as the gag was removed._

'_Dad, he's keeping us at your old factory. Don't give him anything! Dad please—-'_

_Jack hit him over the head with the butt of his gun before Toby could finish his sentence. Jack didn't say anything more, just turned the camera off._

Thomas looked at Steve pleadingly. "Please, you have to find my kids."

Steve placed his hand on Thomas' shoulder. "Now that we have an exact location, we're leaving now. Kono, call HPD and tell them to meet us there."

Kono nodded as she pulled out her phone. They left the Jacobson residence and headed for the factory. Steve and Danny arrived first and jumped out of the car and headed to the trunk. Steve tossed Danny his TAC vest as he put his own on. He looked over and saw Chin and Kono doing the same. He heard the faint sound of siren's headed their way and Steve motioned to get into position.

He and Danny took the front as Chin and Kono took the back. Steve counted to three and he and Danny silently entered the factory. Weapons drawn, they made their way through the dimly lit factory. Danny noticed a light on in the office and motioned for Steve.

Steve made his way over to Danny and looked through the window, nodding his head in confirmation. Danny readied himself and nodded back to Steve. Steve opened the door and entered first, Danny close behind him. Steve had his weapon trained on Jack.

"Five-O, put your weapon down."

Jack kept his gun trained on the tall one as his eyes trailed over to the short one, whose gun was also pointed at him.

"You first."

Steve didn't have to look to know where Jack was looking. He shifted ever so slightly in front of Danny.

"If you shoot me, he'll shoot you and it'll be just one big mess. I won't tell you again, put your weapon down."

Jack shifted his eyes nervously between the two of them. He looked back at the taller of the two and knew he was telling the truth. He slowly put his gun down and set it on the floor, raising his hands in surrender.

Steve relaxed a bit. "Good. Now slide your weapon over to me and put your hands behind your head."

Jack did as he was told and slid the gun over before putting his hands behind his head. Steve bent down and picked up the gun, holstered his own, and disarmed it.

"Book 'em Danno." he said as he walked over to the kids and untied them.

Once the kids were free, Cara threw herself into Steve's arms, holding on tight.

"Thank you. Can we go home now?"

Steve hugged her back and gently held her back and gave her the once over, checking for any visible injuries.

"Soon, I promise. I want the paramedics to look you and your brother over and then my partner and I will personally take you guys home."

Cara nodded her head and wiped her face. She grabbed her brother's hand and followed Steve out of the factory. Danny followed close behind with Jack.

As they got outside, paramedics immediately surrounded Cara and Toby. Steve left them to it and he joined Danny with handing over their perp to HPD. He bumped shoulders with Danny.

"I told you things would work out."

Danny smiled back and rested his head against Steve's shoulder.

"Let's get these kids outta here and then can we go home? We can worry about the paperwork on Monday and we don't have any other cases."

Steve wrapped his arm around Danny and pulled him closer and kissed the top of Danny's head.

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan." he said. Steve leaned down so he could whisper in Danny's ear. "And if you thought I forgot about that text you sent me, think again Danny. When we get home, I'm collecting on your promise."

Danny gulped as his cock stirred in his slacks and his face felt hot. He turned and hid his head in Steve's shoulder and groaned.

"You bastard."

Steve laughed as he rubbed Danny's back, letting his hand slide down to that ass and giving it a squeeze, making Danny yelp. He kissed Danny's head again before he made his way over to the paramedics to check on the kids.

"How are they?" he asked.

"They're fine. I don't think Toby has a concussion, but I want to take him in just in case." The paramedic said.

Steve nodded. "Alright. We'll meet you there. Cara, are you riding with your brother?"

"Yes."

Steve nodded. "Okay. Detective Williams and I will follow you and we'll see you at the hospital."

"Thank you. When can we go home?"

"As soon as the doctor clears your brother to leave the hospital. After that, my partner and I will personally escort you home."

Cara nodded and gave Steve a quick hug before joining her brother in the back of the ambulance.

Steve walked back over to the car and got behind the wheel and pulled out of the parking lot as soon as Danny closed his door. They arrived at the hospital a few minutes after the ambulance and made themselves comfortable in the waiting room.

A few hours later, a doctor came out from the back, escorting Cara and Toby to the waiting room. Both Steve and Danny stood and faced the doctor.

"How is he?" Steve asked.

"He's going to be fine. The both of them were a bit dehydrated so we gave them some fluids. We did a CT on Toby and found no fractures to his skull, but he does have a very mild concussion. He may have a headache for a few hours, but nothing else seems like a cause for concern. I have cleared them to be released to you and to get them home safely."

Steve shook the doctor's hand as Danny led the kids out to the car. "Thank you doctor."

The doctor nodded before heading back into the ER. Steve headed for the car and then drove them to the Jacobson residence. Cara and Toby were practically bouncing in the backseat the closer they got home.

Danny smiled as he thought back to Grace. She always acted that way the closer they got to Steve's. His thoughts switched over to how he was going to tell his daughter about his relationship with Steve.

Steve pulled in the driveway of the Jacobson home and laughed as Cara and Toby began to scramble out of the car, hitting Danny in the back of his head.

"Alright, calm down and let Detective Williams and myself exit the vehicle." he waited for them to settle down before he opened his door.

Danny did the same before he could get injured further. He pulled his seat forward and let them scramble out of the car. Thomas came bounding out of the house and gathered up his children in his arms, tears falling from his eyes.

Steve and Danny stood side-by-side in front of the Camaro, watching the happy reunion. Thomas stood up and walked over to them.

"Thank you. Thank you both for finding them. How can I ever repay you?"

Danny was about to say something, but Steve stopped him with a hand on Danny's shoulder.

"Just knowing that we did our jobs and brought your kids home safe is enough thanks for us."

Thomas nodded and shook each of their hands and escorted his children into the house. Danny watched them leave before turning his attention to Steve.

"What was that all about?" Danny inquired.

"What was what?" Steve replied.

"Why did you stop me from talking? I could've gotten some pretty awesome stuff!"

"Exactly my point. We don't do this job in the hopes of getting free stuff or a reward. That's not why you became a cop Danny and you know it."

Danny sighed. "I know. I'm just saying it's nice to be offered. I'm beat. Can we go home now?"

Steve pulled Danny close to him before leaning down to whisper in Danny's ear.

"Of course Danno. And when we get home, I want you upstairs, naked, and lying on your stomach with that perfect ass in the air."

Danny swallowed hard and tried to get himself under control. The last thing he needed was a raging hard-on on the drive home with the king of teasing in the seat beside him.

He climbed into the car and buckled knowing that Steve was going to break every speed limit law just to get them home. Danny prayed he got there in one piece. He really didn't want to kill his boyfriend, not with the prospect of sex on the line.


	21. Chapter 21

Ah, the much awaited smut. It's been a long time coming and now, no more teasing. ;-)

Enjoy!

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Ten minutes later, Steve pulled into their driveway and pulled Danny into a rough, dirty kiss. They both broke away panting and stared into each other's eyes. Steve stared at Danny with such hunger, lust, and love. He grabbed the car keys and motioned for Danny to get out and to the house.

Steve exited the car and moved slowly toward the house, watching Danny the whole way. Once Steve stepped through the door, he heard Danny moving around upstairs. He bent over and unlaced his boots lining them, and Danny's shoes, neatly by the door.

He walked around the house, making sure all the doors and windows were locked and set the alarm before making his way upstairs. He stopped in the doorway to their bedroom and stared at the gorgeous picture Danny made. His cock twitched in his cargos and he bit his bottom lip to keep himself from moaning.

He silently stripped off his clothes and jerked his cock slowly at the sight of Danny spread open and vulnerable. He walked over and carefully pulled open his bedside table drawer, pulling out the bottle of lube. Steve climbed on the bed behind Danny and kissed up Danny's spine, draping himself over the shorter man and nuzzled into Danny's neck.

Danny didn't know how long he'd been kneeling on the bed, but it was long enough for his knee to start aching. He listened to Steve moving around downstairs and he knew Steve would be locking up. He let his mind wander to what was about to happen and he didn't notice when Steve finally came in.

Danny about had a heart attack when he felt Steve's mouth on his back. He relaxed and turned his head, capturing Steve's lips with his own. He moaned at the loss of Steve's mouth but gasped a few minutes later when that mouth began to lick and suck at his entrance.

After a few minutes of kissing, Steve pulled away and positioned himself behind Danny; gripping that majestic ass and spread the cheeks and licked over the exposed hole. He pressed his face in as close as he could get and he licked and sucked, making Danny as wet as possible. He pulled away when Danny showed signs that he was about to come. He ran his hands up and down Danny's back, calming him down. He picked up the bottle of lube where he dropped it on the bed and squirted out a generous amount on his fingers.

When Steve had calmed Danny down a bit, he pushed a finger in past the loosened muscle. As he worked Danny open, Steve placed open-mouthed kisses up Danny's back and over those broad shoulders. He took his time, not wanting to rush this. During Danny's recovery, Steve insisted on taking it slow; not wanting to aggravate Danny's wounds.

Of course, he'd pictured exactly how he wanted this to play out, but when he got that text from Danny; his plans went out the window. He pulled his fingers out, applying more lube, and pushed in two fingers into Danny's well slicked hole. Steve kissed over Danny's back and left kisses all over his neck, leaving dark bruises in his wake.

Danny was becoming very impatient with Steve's sloth-like movements. He couldn't hold his weight up much longer and dropped down to his forearms, resting his forehead on the pillow.

"Babe, please. Been waiting too long for this. Need you."

Steve was still kissing Danny's neck as he inserted a third finger when he heard Danny's plea. He draped himself over Danny's back and kissed over Danny's face.

"I know Danno. Just a bit longer. Don't want to hurt you." he nuzzled against Danny's face as he thrusted his fingers a few more times inside Danny's tight heat.

Steve pulled his fingers away, keeping up the sporadic kisses to Danny's face, and lubed up his aching erection and positioned it at Danny's entrance. He held himself up on his arms as he began to push past the first ring of muscle. Steve kissed the back of Danny's neck and down his spine. He finally pushed all the way in, pausing to let Danny adjust, and began a slow in-and-out movement.

Steve gently stroked down Danny's forearms to his hands, entwining their fingers. He kissed and nipped over Danny's neck and shoulders, leaving marks behind Danny's ear and where neck and shoulder meet.

Danny could barely scratch the surface of what emotions were flowing through him. He's never seen this side of Steve before and he's becoming very addicted to it. Don't get him wrong, he loved the hot, wild animalistic sex they have, but it's nice to be romanced every once in a while.

Danny squeezed Steve's fingers and clenched his eyes shut, letting out a guttural moan as Steve found his prostate. He pushed up onto his hands, never letting go of Steve's, and hung his head between his shoulders, pushing back into Steve's movements. It felt like lightning was surging through his body; his nerve endings on fire. Heat pulled low in his belly, balls growing tight and pulling close to his body.

"Steve gonna—please. T-touch me! Please! Gotta come, babe, please!" he gasped out.

Steve pulled completely out and shushed Danny when he protested the movement. "Shh, Danno. I'm not stopping, I promise. Turn on your back. Wanna watch you when you come."

Danny did as he was told and looked up at Steve. His breath caught in his throat as he saw the debauched man in front of him. He pulled Steve down into a kiss, moaning as Steve re-entered him, and wrapped his legs around Steve's trim waist.

Steve wrapped his hand around Danny's jutting cock, matching his strokes to the rhythm of his hips; which have picked up in speed. He kissed Danny with everything he had, saying everything he couldn't with words. He felt Danny tense up and he angled his hips, hitting Danny's prostate, tipping him over the edge.

Danny pulled away from Steve's mouth and came with a howl. He held onto Steve's shoulders, leaving red scratches down his back, as he worked through the aftershocks.

Steve was just a few thrusts behind Danny and came a few seconds later, milking himself through his orgasm. When he got his wits about him, he pulled out of Danny and went to the bathroom, bringing back a wet washcloth.

He quickly cleaned himself up before kneeling on the bed to gently clean Danny of come and sweat. He threw the cloth in the direction of the bathroom and looked down at Danny. His eyes landed on the scars left over from Danny's kidnapping and gently ran his fingers over them. He bent down and kissed over them reverently, knowing he came so close to losing Danny.

Danny watched Steve through heavy-lidded eyes and ran his fingers through Steve's sweaty hair, cupping the back of Steve's neck.

"Hey, I'm here. I'm right here, I'm alive, and I'm okay. You rescued me. I'm not going anywhere, okay babe? I'm always gonna be right here." he soothed.

Steve leaned into Danny's touch before lying next to Danny and placed his head over Danny's heart, listening to the thump-thump-thump of it beating with life. He closed his eyes and felt tears falling down his face to land on Danny's hairy chest.

"How can you promise that? You know as well as I do how dangerous our jobs are. What if I can't protect you or what if it's me next time? I just—I can't—you can't leave me Danny. You have no idea what it felt like not having you by my side. I felt like I was missing a limb; a piece of my soul. I don't want to go through that again." he clung tightly to Danny, not caring how he's acting.

Danny lay there, listening as Steve revealed his fears. He stroked over Steve's neck and shoulders, trying to get the taller man to calm down. He actually knew how Steve was feeling. He got that feeling every time Steve put himself in harm's way, but this was not about him. This was about Steve and reassuring him that he's gonna be alright.

"You listen to me Steven J. McGarrett. No matter what happens, I'm always going to be with you. Never, ever doubt that. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, alright? Try and get some sleep, okay? I love you." he kissed the top of Steve's head as he settled into the bed.

Steve snuggled closer, not relinquishing his hold on Danny and kissed his chest. "I love you too Danno." he closed his eyes and fell asleep.


	22. Chapter 22

Well, this is the final chapter. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed this story. I enjoyed reading your comments and what you thought about it so far. I love you all to pieces!

Anyway, enjoy! :-)

* * *

_**Epilogue**_

Over the next few weeks, Steve and Danny had been moving all of Danny's things into their house. Steve bought a storage locker and put all of Mary's old bedroom furniture, and whatever stuff of Danny's would fit or work in the house, in it.

Its Danny's weekend with Grace and Steve wanted to take her furniture shopping and then shop for paint colors on her next visit. Danny pulled up outside of Grace's school on Friday afternoon and he and Steve got out of the car and leaned on the hood, waiting for Grace to appear.

Once the final bell rang, Grace came bounding out of the school and spotted the Camaro. She ran toward it and her smile grew even wider when she caught sight of Steve. She ran straight for him.

"Uncle Steve!" she jumped into his arms.

Steve smiled at her and braced for impact. He wrapped her up in a hug and kissed the top of her head.

"Hey kiddo. How was school?"

Grace pulled back from the hug to look Steve in the eye. "It was alright. One of the zoo keepers came in and showed us a bunch of animals. Can we go to the zoo sometime?"

Steve chuckled as he set her back down on the ground. "Sure, but you gotta ask your dad first."

Grace looked over at Danny. "Please Danno? It could be really fun!"

Danny seemed to contemplate it before looking at Steve, amusement on his face, and then looked down at Grace.

"Oh, I don't know Monkey. I think your Uncle Steve has something special planned for you."

Grace turned imploring, but excited eyes to Steve. "What is it? Is it a secret? Is it a surprise? Can you tell me?" she was practically bouncing on her toes in her excitement.

Steve pursed his lips and then looked at Danny. "I don't know Danno. Should we tell her?"

"Hm…I don't know. You think she's ready for it?"

Grace was getting impatient now. "Tell me what! Tell me what!"

Steve finally relented and decided to put Grace out of her misery.

"Okay, okay. You've twisted my arm. I am taking you furniture shopping."

Grace's face twisted into confusion. "Why?"

This time, Danny took over. "Because Monkey you'll need it for your new room at Uncle Steve's place."

Grace still had confusion written on her face until Danny knelt to her level. "Gracie, sweetie, I'm living with Uncle Steve now. Do you understand?"

Grace seemed to think on that for a few minutes before giving her answer. "Do you guys kiss, like you and mommy used to?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah, we do. Does that make you uncomfortable? Because you can tell us. We won't be mad."

Steve knelt next to Danny and nodded his head at her, telling her its okay. Grace looked between the two of them and noticed at how happy the both of them were. She looked at Danny seriously.

"Are you happy Danno?"

Her question took Danny by surprise but he smiled softly at her. "Yeah Monkey. I'm very happy."

She nodded and turned to Steve. "Are you happy Uncle Steve?"

"Yeah kiddo, I am."

Grace smiled at them both. "Okay. The both of you being happy makes me happy."

Danny's eyes glistened at his daughter's words and pulled her into a hug, Steve joining in after a few minutes. They all piled into the car and headed for the furniture store. When they arrived, Steve told Grace to pick out whatever she wanted. Grace squealed with delight and ran towards the children's section. Steve and Danny trailed behind, watching as Grace contemplated between and bunk bed/desk combo or just a regular bed.

Finally having decided on the bunk bed/desk combo and a dresser, Steve paid for it all and made sure to get same day delivery. At the last-minute, Steve decided to stop at the hardware store so Grace could pick out her paint color. With that out-of-the-way, Steve treated them all to dinner and shave ice at Kamekona's.

When they arrived home, they found the furniture guys waiting for them.

"Monkey, why don't you go inside and watch tv while Uncle Steve and I help with the furniture."

"Okay Danno."

With all the help, they were able to get all the furniture put together and arranged the way that Grace wanted it. Danny told her to get ready for bed and he'd be in to tuck her in in a few minutes. Both Danny and Steve said their good nights with a promise to a trip to the zoo tomorrow.

As they laid down in their own bed, exhausted from the days' events, Danny curled into Steve's side and rested his head on Steve's chest.

"Thank you. You didn't have to do that."

Steve kissed the top of Danny's head. "How many times do I have to tell you? I wanted to Danno. Now shut up about it and get some sleep."

Danny rolled his eyes before lifting his head and pressed a kiss to Steve's lips.

"Asshole. I love you Steve. Always remember that."

"I will Danno. Love you too." he wrapped his arms around Danny and settled into sleep, knowing he'll get to hold Danny like this for the rest of their lives.

~end~


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